Nigerian women in international trade: How well, so far?

In recent times, more Nigerians are participating in international trade. In this report, ENE OSHABA examines how Nigerian women in international trade are faring as well as the impact on the nation’s economy following a conference by Organisation of Women In International Trade.

Nigerian women from way back have been involved in trade more than white collar jobs compared to the men. However, most women owned businesses are mostly not on a big scale due various inhibitions ranging from paucity of funds, cultural to educational factors.

Though Nigeria is deemed one of the largest economies in Africa, it has been acknowledge that there was still much work to be done even as she strives to attain regional and global competitiveness, most especially as it concerns gender inequality in trade.

Sadly, Nigeria has been ranked low on the global gender index. The World Economic Forum 2021 report showed that Nigeria ranked 139 out of 149 countries on the global gender index rank, pointing to the need for joint efforts towards abating gender inequality related loses.

Speaking on the development, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Ambassador Maryam Yalwaji Katagum, said women, estimated to account for 70 per cent of informal cross-border trade in Africa, adding that they will be well positioned to tap into regional export destinations and use regional markets as stepping stones for expanding into overseas markets.

In the same vein, the National President, Organisation of Women in International Trade (OWIT), Nigeria, Blessing IraborOza, while speaking exclusively to Blueprint Weekend, said women have been resilient in trade over the years despite several gender based challenges.

She noted the poor growth of womens trade especially in the global markets, stating that they have not been able to trade amongst themselves due to several challenges.

Irabor-Oza said culture in Nigeria, and how the entire African region is structured, where women don’t own landed properties makes it impossible for them to assess loans.She, however, described women in Trade as resilient and still striving to do their best. 

Sharing experience

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), VicsRoyal Family Foods, a young producer of cereals based in Rivers state, Victoria Ijeoma, expressed much hope in women’s entrepreneurship advancement stating that awareness creation was key to achieving this in Nigeria.

“My product is made in Nigeria and its growing daily. I see women especially African women in Trade taking over the whole world in trade because there are interventions and for me there are no challenges.

“I produce cereal and I’m surprised at the level of patronage I get considering the time I started. This shows that Nigerians are now beginning to understand why they should support home grown business but there are still huge challenges with exporting our products.

“I will advise women to take advantage of the trainings available, network with people, ask questions and also start up something no matter how small because African products are getting patronage worldwide today,” she stated. 

Preference for foreign goods

On her part, the owner of Pfizer Ventures Limited, a company that produces local spices and snacks, Hauwa Goni, said patronage was quite slow in Nigeria because lots of Nigerians would rather go for foreign products, though she said she was not discouraged because awareness creation was changing the tide.

Lamenting the stringent conditions to assessing loans to expand their businesses, she appealed that government should provide interest free loans for women just to encourage more entrepreneurs.

She said though Nigeria was trying to meet up with standard most women entrepreneurs don’t have enough money, hence government should be flexible with policies and help them with low interest or zero interest loans so they can grow. 

Impact of AfCFTA

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is an ambitious trade pact to form the worlds largest free trade area by creating a single market for goods and services of almost 1.3 billion people across Africa and deepening the economic integration of Africa.

The AfCFTA promises broader and deeper economic integration and would attract investment, boost trade, provide better jobs, reduce poverty, and increase shared prosperity in Africa.

Nigeria signed the AfCFTA on July 7, 2019, becoming the 34th member of the trading bloc.

Despite the AfCFTA advantages to Nigeria’s trade balance as it expectedly opened a wider market space for the countrys exports and opportunity to get cheaper imports of goods and services, the question, however, is the extent to which this has impacted on women’s trade.

According to Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Ambassador Maryam Yalwaji Katagum, with the launch of trading under the AfCFTA in January 2021, the expectations were high as relates to the expanded business prospects for women-led businesses, which will unlock the potential for African women to grow their businesses from micro to macro enterprises.

Katagum noted that the agreement establishing the AfCFTA recognised the need to build and improve the export capacity of both formal and informal service suppliers, with particular attention to micro, small and medium size enterprises in which women and youth actively participate.

“Through the AfCFTA, informal and micro and small enterprises will be integrated into the continental markets breaking the barriers these businesses constantly encounter as they try to penetrate more advanced regional and overseas markets,” she said.

The minister, however, noted the lack of gender sensitivity in the implement of the AfCFTA pact has remained a bane to the growth of women’s trade, calling for synergy and cooperation among all Africans regardless of background to be gender sensitive in the implementation of the AfCFTA if it must attain its desired goal.

More challenges

National president OWIT, Nigeria, while noting many hindering factors to women’s trade, expressed worry that women have not been able to trade amongst themselves, while stressing the need for the creation of platforms that will enable women to effectively communicate and trade among themselves.

“If you look at the sector, women are over 70 per cent of the MSME’s so if women trade with themselves you can imagine the economic impact it will have in their individual members and one major challenge is the inability of women to get financing.

“Why women are not able to get financing for business is due to lack of collateral because most women dont own landed property.

“There is also the inability in accessing financing for women in regional and global trade, the digital divide to sell products competitive with each other is another challenge, the world has moved from physical space to the internet and women are left behind because of poor educational level.

“The way culture and region is structured do not favour women, they don’t own lands and properties and these are some of the requirements when you go to assess finance in the bank.

“Also women don’t have good account system and must build capacity on that,” Irabor-Oza stressed. 

Cross border trade policy

Speaking on the issue, the Head Gender, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, 

Achylam Chioma, expressed concerns on the issue of cross border trade.

She stressed that the ministry has been a vehicle for trans-border trades that encourages women into trading with components as “She trades”.

This is as she called on women to access the available policies and also have standard products.

“Women should ensure they do legal trading; women are good and energetic traders and must avoid mistakes that could be detrimental 
because it is not easy to run cross-border trade,” she added.

While responding to the limitations of women in cross-border trade, a leading member of the West Africa Cross-Border Association (WACA), Flora Takim Ndifon, said from Ikom  in Cross Rivers state to Cameroon and Sao tome borders, Nigeria particularly had no government infrastructure in the border communities except for Customs whom she said the local business owners in communities don’t appreciate due to extortions.

“Women own big cocoa and plantain farms, they need a small cottage factory to produce these products so the shelve lives of their products is extended but there are none, so they are forced to sell their agricultural products cheaper in order not to lose out completely because agricultural products are perishable.

“Cluster of cooperatives should be formed to add value to women’s products. Africans need to invest in laboratories, carry out research to know the features of a product so as to know how to preserve and extend life span of products,” she stressed.

Similarly, an operations officer with the World Bank Group, Alicia Maude Stephens, noted that compliance of traders is a major problem, adding that most traders especially women do not treat their businesses with utmost commitment regards information that is accessible.

She stressed the need for capacity building for traders to be able to access information,  stating that there has to be a system that is constantly available for women especially in grassroots to assess information and capacity built for compliance.

Way forward

Speaking on the way forward, the OWIT president urged women to take advantage of lots of ongoing training to make sure they build their capacity in keeping their records straight in order to be able to prove to the banks that they can repay loans.

“The money don’t belong to the bankers it is only put in their trust so if they must give money you too should be able to prove how you can repay the money.

“There are other initiatives coming from government like in Kenya there is a micro trust fund, the Women micro scheme where you can do one woman to the other where you can do a revolving loan specifically for women because when you go to commercial banks to take loans you know the interest rates a woman who is still struggling with her business cannot collect that loan and pay back effectively.

“Government should create such trust funds and other opportunities for women entrepreneurs to enable them contribute their GDP to the economy,” she added.

Similarly, the minister of state for trade stressed that more women needed to be encouraged to go into technically oriented Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

According to her, it was necessary for women to be able to pioneer scientific innovations that are inclusive, and to shape business trends.

She further called for a reduction in tariffs and with simplified trading regimes for small traders, disclosing that AfCFTA makes it more affordable for informal traders to operate through formal channels which offer more protection by addressing the vulnerabilities women in crossborder trade face.

“As part of preparation for gender inclusion in national AfCFTA strategies and policies companies have to invest in women directly by integrating gender policies and practices with global diversity: Womens personal safety when determining working conditions and hours,” she stated.

For her, “Banks should set up gender desks with a view to go the extra mile in identifying and prioritising targets of potential women borrowers as a platform for ascertaining and providing financial empowerment African Development Bank (ADB) to support women

led Farmers Based Associations (FBAS) and MSME’s to promote agriculture in certain African countries.

“Greater efforts need to be made to provide women with access to technical education and on-the-job training.

“Targeted entrepreneurship training can help women entrepreneurs grasp the opportunities that open markets create and calibrate their businesses toward those opportunities through creativity and innovation.

“Providing new technology platforms, empowering new small and medium sized enterprises, creating jobs, diversifying economies, improving productivity, and facilitating entry into new markets.

“Women need the skills and access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), business networks and technical knowledge to be able to tap into these emerging opportunities.

“More women need to be encouraged to go into technically oriented STEM fields to be able to pioneer scientific innovations that are inclusive, and to shape business trends.

“Women are the drivers of the African economy and I therefore, will use this opportunity to call for synergy and cooperation among all Africans regardless of background to be gender sensitive in the implementation of the AfCFTA if it must attain its desired goal.

“No doubt, our collective success story will be that of transfer of skills, socio-economic development and sustainability of the overall processes, unity and above all, employment generation.

“Nevertheless, I will not fail to commend the organisers of this conference for this lofty imitative, which I believe is borne out of patriotism of the Organisation of Women In International Trade, for playing host to this great gathering, and all the participants from different parts of Africa for their sacrifices amidst every storm to be here.”

“Finally, I encourage all women in their respective clusters and associations to take advantage of various government incentives and platforms in their various countries geared towards support and empowerment for greater achievements and sustainability,” she added.