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Herconomy, Empowering Women In Nigeria And Beyond

Ekene Eyimegwu
The gender discrepancy in all sectors of the economy in Nigeria is a reflection of the African and global realities. The Nigerian technology space is mainly monopolized by men, and very few women are actively involved in the sector.
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Despite the rapid advancement in Nigeria’s technology sector, only very few women have the chance to participate as founders or employees of tech businesses. As such, bridging the gap between male and female participation in the technology sector remains a herculean task. Regardless of the differences in accessing opportunities, women are still able to create,  innovate and trigger change through technology in their immediate environments. Things are gradually improving as younger women are showing active interest in technology. While women creators of technology or innovators are very few, the gender is eager to partner the menfolk in shaping the development of technology in Nigeria. Recently, women are announcing their active participation as co-creators of technology and innovation. Although there is no reliable estimate of female tech creators/innovators, there are some notable women pioneers in the Nigerian tech industry. They include Funke Okpeke, Florence Seriki, Omobola Johnson, Dr Olayinka David West, and Nkemdilim Begho, just to mention a few. Banke Alawaye, Jejumade Afonja, Hamdalah Adetunji, and Monini Ufelu are also among the new generation of women contributing within the technology space. Many tech startups are developing creative platforms that provide solutions to everyday problems. One of Nigeria’s new generation technology is Herconomy founded by Ifedayo Durosinmi- Etti. Herconomy is a startup empowering women through financial services, capacity building, jobs, and networking. Herconomy announced in December 2021 that it has acquired a $600,000 pre-seed fund to expand the product offerings on its platform. The platform started as a page on Instagram and as of then was named AGS Tribe. It became a place where women could get access to opportunities, grants, and fellowships. Herconomy claims to have disbursed about  ₦30,000,000 ($71,600) in grants to forty-two women and men as part of its annual grants program. Due to the value it created, The AGS Tribe became a community with a website that was supposed to be launched in 2019. The site crashed on the day it was supposed to be launched. It was ultimately moved to telegram where people pay 5000 Naira a month to be able to access it. The participants increased to 1500 making it difficult to control as there was a massive turn up in terms of messages. It then led to the quest to find a solution which led to the birth of Herconomy, a mobile application to solve the problem, the AGS tribe was facing. Currently, the application has a 3-star rating on Appstore.
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Herconomy is an outlet that aims to economically empower women. It is based in Lagos, Nigeria. The organization counts 15,000 entrepreneurs and professionals from around the world as members, including 1,500 UK members. A significant portion of its pre-seed funding round came from its UK-based committee members and investors. Herconomy does the following:
  1. provides female members with training, jobs, and capacity-building opportunities. 
  2. It offers female members access to grants, loans, scholarships, employment, and investment. 
  3. It has partnered with local brands to provide women with discounts on key products and services.
  4. Developing United Kingdom partnerships to support women.
  5. They aim to build closer business links between UK female-focused companies and the Nigerian business community to enable the creation of a more diverse and inclusive transnational business ecosystem.
  6. It provides digital platforms that support customers with their financial needs. 
  7. It provides a platform to make money when you refer someone to the platform.
  8. It gives employers access to a talent pool full of women.
  9. It is an avenue to personalize your profile, share your thoughts and ideas.
Launching the application came with the realization that not all women would be able to pay for the membership fees and they wanted to reach even more women. The application has a three-tier membership structure:
  1. Freemium subscription:  it gives members access to their community and opportunity board for free.
  2.  Silver subscription: it offers members access to their weekly capacity-building workshops called the Lightbox.
  3.  Gold subscription: it offers access to the community’s affinity network where members can get discounts from over 60 brands including Raddison Blu Lagos, Qatar Airways, and Adidas. Gold members (people who pay $120 yearly) also have additional benefits. 
Herconomy also introduced a job board and eventually became Amazon’s first recruitment partner in Nigeria for their EU region. The startup plans to introduce financial services to its community members which it believes will be of great benefit to them. Herconomy is fully female-centric, and as such women in Nigeria should make use of this avenue to benefit from what Herconomy is offering. A chance to change one’s life through jobs opportunities, capacity buildings, and other offerings of the Herconomy. Featured image: The Guardian Nigeria
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