Facebook has partnered She Leads Africa, an online community helping young African women achieve their professional dreams, to launch an initiative that helps women build, grow and start their own businesses.
Globally, the #SheMeansBusiness initiative was launched by Facebook on International Women’s Day in 2016 to encourage more women start their own business hereby increase the economy of countries. Since launch, the initiative has been in India and the Phillipines.
Prior to the launch in these countries, a study conducted by Development Economic on behalf of Facebook showed a high percentage of women who do business online and according to the study, these women can be key to economic growth.
This study was also replicated in Nigeria and estimated that businesses owned by women in Nigeria hold the key to unlocking ₦19.7 billion for the economy and the opportunity of creating additional jobs in the next five years.
Afua Osei (Cofounder, She Leads Africa), revealed that Facebook is looking forward to taking critical digital tools to entrepreneurs across Nigeria.
With Nigeria having one of Facebook's largest user base at 17 million of the 2.119 billion global users and 200 million to WhatsApp’s 1.2 billion monthly active users, there is tremendous untapped potential to be harnessed.
