By Happiness Edeawe
The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) has launched the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund, a $50 million initiative aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs in digital trade.
Nigeria is one of the four pilot countries for this program, alongside the Dominican Republic, Mongolia, and Jordan.
The Director-General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, unveiled the fund warning that global commerce is facing “extremely challenging times” marked by rising unilateralism and protectionism.
The initiative seeks to equip women-owned businesses in developing countries with the necessary skills, resources, and networks to participate competitively in global value chains.
Speaking in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized that Nigeria’s low internet penetration, with only 45 percent of the population connected compared to a global average of 67 percent, could limit the country’s ability to tap into the fast-growing global digital trade market.
“No nation can truly digitise without a steady supply of electricity and reliable, affordable internet,” she warned. “More than half of Nigerians remain disconnected, and this gap must be closed if we are to seize the opportunities of digital trade.”
The WEIDE Fund is a joint effort by the WTO and the ITC aimed at empowering women-led businesses in developing countries.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), led by Mrs. Nonye Ayeni, stood out with a strong application in a competitive process involving over 600 business support organizations worldwide.
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Over 67,000 Nigerian women entrepreneurs applied for the first cohort of the WEIDE Fund. Due to the high quality of applications, the number of beneficiaries was increased from 100 to 146. Beneficiaries operate across sectors such as agriculture, IT, fashion, hospitality, beauty, and manufacturing.
Sixteen entrepreneurs in the Booster Track will each receive up to $30,000 and 18 months of technical assistance. One hundred and thirty entrepreneurs in the Discovery Track will each get up to $5,000 and a year of business support.
Okonjo-Iweala lamented that women remain underrepresented in Nigeria’s booming ICT sector, which contributed 18 percent to GDP in 2022, up from less than 4 percent in 2001.
“A study found that only 30 percent of Nigerian tech firms are owned by women,” she said. “We rank 128th out of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report. We can and must do better.”
Addressing the 146 awardees directly, Okonjo-Iweala said, “You earned this through hard work and vision. Use this moment to dream bigger, scale higher and go further. When I return in two years, I want to see how many more people you have hired, how many new markets you have reached, and how many women you have inspired.”
She concluded, “When women succeed, communities succeed, economies succeed. This is not just a moral case, it is an economic case. Let’s make it happen.”
