EGO Foundation on Tuesday took its SheEnabled project to the Alimosho area of Lagos where it trained over 400 women on digital and financial literacy.

The training which was in commemoration with the International Women’s Day saw market women and female entrepreneurs enlightened on the contemporary need for digital and financial literacy for the progress of their businesses.

In his remark, Executive Director, Toluwase Olaniyan expressed excitement over the progress and the impacts the project is making across Lagos.

He lamented the financial and digital literacy among women doing business in the state while noting how effective the project has been able to bridge the gap.

He said, “The goal for us is to deepen financial and digital literacy. A few of the things we have done is to partner with Google, on one of their programmes called Google hustle, to help them [market women] leverage the digital space. We know that Google is one of the biggest search engine platforms. So these women now learn how to use Google to upscale and push their businesses out there.

“We have also partnered with a couple of brands: Padi Mi Alajo, a lot of other guys, who help women understand financial literacy such as book-keeping, savings and the essence of it. We have a product with one of our partners such that when women save they are able to access health insurance. These are one of the things these women need but they have been unable to access because of literacy and financial implications. So what we have then done is to partner with these brands to help women go deep in financial literacy and leverage all of these systems.”

On how they have been able to measure the impact of the SheEnabled project, Olaniyan explained, “Because we have them in cluster groups, we are able to evaluate how much they know, how much they learn or how much they want. We are able to help them out with documentation in terms of getting loans.

“In one of the feedbacks got in one of the LGs, there was this woman who sells detergent and we gave her those little grants and her story was quite impressive. She’s a mother of four. We gave her about N30K, and with that she was able to do more, brand her product more, and take her business to the next level.”

Also speaking was the founder of Padi Mi, Seth Usanga who bemoaned the lack of information among small and medium scales business owners.

Usanga, however, explained that with a platform like Padi Mi, a lot of them are able to not only structure their businesses, but give themselves digital signatures.

Usanga said, “A lot of market person lacks basic information. A lot of them have the mentality that what they do is so small, not knowing that such small thing can be transformed into something big. That’s where we come in. To help them structure their businesses. And change the narrative that they can also access the same opportunities that everybody can as long as they put themselves in the right groups. Simple saving methods can help their business a lot. What we are trying to do is provide the knowledge and the know-how and walk them through this process to be better.

“We take them through the Padi Mi steps, helping them create a bank account if they don’t have one, help them register with a particular bank, get them to start saving, having them change some of their habits such as taking the paper cash to buy stuff, whentn they can do it through their phone, thereby having digital signatures.”