BREAKING: British Council Urges Stakeholders to Bridge Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs

The Country Director, British Council, Donna McGowan, on Wednesday called on all stakeholders in the private and public sectors to actively engage in implementing recommendations that will bridge the finance gap towards empowering women-owned enterprises in Nigeria.

McGowan made this call, at a summit in Lagos, themed, “Collaborative Action for Enhancing Access to Finance for Women-owned Enterprises in Nigeria,” which brought together representatives from financial institutions, government agencies, civil society organisations, and development partners to discuss actionable strategies to close the financing gap for women entrepreneurs.

She emphasised the importance of financial inclusion for women, stating that it is critical to Nigeria’s economic growth and sustainable development.

She also highlighted the findings from a 2023 study, which identified access to finance as one of the primary challenges for women-led businesses in Nigeria.

“The summit’s main goal is to review the study’s recommendations, foster collaboration among stakeholders, and develop a clear implementation plan with commitments and timelines,” the country director said, adding a key initiative of the study, was the adoption of a gender-inclusive action checklist to enhance financial access and create mechanisms for tracking progress.

McGowan expressed gratitude to various partners for their commitment to the study and the project’s implementation, saying that the role of partnerships in achieving meaningful change underscored the British Council’s dedication to promoting equal opportunities across gender, ethnicity, and religion.

“The summit also aligns with the British Council’s youth connect program, which empowers young people, including women and girls, with the skills and confidence to thrive as entrepreneurs or secure employment in other sectors,” she stated.

Speaking with journalists, Onesi Lawani, the Director in charge of DGs office, Monitoring and Evaluation, SMEDAN, emphasised the significant challenges women face in accessing finance for their businesses.

He explained that nearly 41 per cent of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face financial barriers, with women disproportionately affected by these obstacles.

Some of the challenges, he noted, is the cultural barriers that exist in certain parts of the country, where women often struggle to access information about available funding or face restrictions based on traditional beliefs, a lack of capacity to utilise funds effectively, poor record-keeping, non-compliance with regulatory institutions, and difficulties in meeting collateral requirements.

The director recalled a program designed to support women in accessing finance, where many women would have to involve their husbands or boyfriends in the process.

“This, in some cases, led to personal and relationship issues. We found that when women sought funding, the money would often end up being handled by men, leading to a breakdown of trust and sometimes even relationships,” he said.

Despite these challenges, Lawani also pointed out that many financial institutions remain hesitant to fund women due to the misconception that they might be less capable of repaying loans.

“However, studies have shown that women are often better managers of funds, a key point of contention between the supply side (lenders) and the demand side (borrowers),” he said.

The Director of Programmes, British Council, Chikodi Onyemerela, also stressed the challenges women face when accessing finance saying that collaboration is key to ameliorate the challenges.