Take advantage of border closure to grow your business Minister task women

Following the decision by the federal government to shut the borders, the Minister of women affairs and social development Dame Pauline Tallen has charged women on more commitment to agri-businesses accross the country.

Tallen gave the charge in Abuja during the 2019 annual conference of the African Women Entrepreneurship Program held on the theme “Positioning for Funding.”

Tallen who commended the gesture noted that the closure was to the advantage of Nigerians, adding that it will enable the growth of indegenous business especially in the agricultural sector.

She said, “the closure has created huge opportunity for indigenous businesses especially in the agricultural sector which many women are involved. It is important to make proper use of it”.

She also appraised the entrepreneurs on their efforts in production while promising to champion the course to ensure that products show cased will be NAFDAC approved.

Delivering a keynote address Principal Consultant, The Learning Gate (TLG) Ajuma Ataguba, stressed the need for women to take business further from the point of being a hobby, stating that for a business to gain access or be loan worthy it has to have a documented business plan.

“The important elements of a good business plan, foremost is having a written, well documented business plan, for this acts as a guide for navigation. A company with business plan has more advantage of accessing funds or loans for greater development,” she said.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ekaville Consulting, Ekaette Umoh, explained the need for women entrepreneurs to know that record keeping is of a key importance in business.

According to her “this shows the activities of the business and as such when presented makes it easier to access loans or funding as at a glance a financier could tell if it is save to accord loans to such business.

In her welcome address, AWEP National President Mrs. Angela Ajala, said the organisation aims at positioning women-owned Nigerian bisinesses accross borders and platforms.

Ajala said the theme was carefully chosen because of the constant complain from women that they have no money to grow their businesses, saying it aims at exposing on the basics before looking for money.

“The idea is to expose to women that money is not the first thing you need in a business. Are your records well kept, are you out there in the market, is you product visible, do you have good accounting principles, have you separated your personal life from your business life for people to see, are you attractive to investors and the banks?

“Those are the things you need to have in place to easily access money because we have seen that in certain places the money is there but one thing is lack of information,” she said.

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