Rural women in Cross River State are set to benefit from a new empowerment programme following a partnership between the MTN Foundation and UN Women aimed at supporting female entrepreneurs in the state and Kano.
The two organisations recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to empower 200 rural female entrepreneurs through skills training, financial inclusion, access to markets and the establishment of processing hubs.
The programme is expected to give women, particularly those involved in agriculture and small businesses, better opportunities to improve their businesses, access funding and take advantage of digital tools.
According to MTN Foundation Executive Director, Dr Odunayo Sanya, the initiative will be implemented through the foundation's Y'elloPreneur programme, which was created to address some of the major challenges facing female entrepreneurs, including limited access to training, funding and markets.
She said the foundation had so far supported 122 women entrepreneurs with about N304 million, while more than 6,000 female entrepreneurs had received capacity-building support through the Y'elloPreneur initiative.
Under the new programme, beneficiaries will undergo entrepreneurship training at the Enterprise Development Centre in Lagos. They will then develop business proposals, pitch their ideas and have opportunities to access funding for viable businesses.
For Cross River, the programme could be particularly important for women operating in rural communities where access to finance, technology and wider markets remains a challenge.
UN Women Country Representative, Beatrice Eyong, said the partnership would help bring rural women into the digital economy, noting that women who lack digital access risk being left behind as more economic activities move online.
She explained that Cross River and Kano were selected because of their strong agricultural activities, particularly in rice and cassava production.
The programme will therefore seek to help participating women improve productivity, add value to agricultural products and build businesses that can reach larger markets.
For many women in Cross River's rural communities, where farming and small-scale trading remain major sources of livelihood, the combination of business training, financial inclusion, digital skills and market access could provide an opportunity to move from subsistence activities to more organised and sustainable businesses.
The partnership also comes as efforts to improve women's participation in Nigeria's digital economy continue to grow, with financial and digital inclusion increasingly becoming important tools for helping rural entrepreneurs expand beyond their immediate communities.
MTN Foundation said it is targeting equal participation of men and women in its programmes by 2030, with women currently accounting for 43.7 per cent of its beneficiaries.
The new initiative is expected to give 200 women across Cross River and Kano access to opportunities that could strengthen their businesses, improve household incomes and contribute to economic activities in their communities.
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