An organisation, Islamic Council of Nigeria (ICIN), says it has begun training of 60 women on digital marketing, to empower them to boost their businesses.
Speaking at the two-day training entitled: “Women Empowerment Using Digital Skills” on Tuesday in Jos, the Executive Director of ICIN, Mrs Fatima Suleiman, said that the training was designed for petty traders.
She said that they were selected from areas affected by crises in Bassa and Jos North local government areas.
The training was funded by Urgent Fund Action Africa with support from GIZ and Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency.
She said that the participants would be trained on using technology via their phones to promote their businesses, saying the world has gone global which required women to comply with the trend.
“Businesses are now on the phone so the issue of mobile marketing is important.
“The focus is on local women and not the elites from crisis-affected areas, who are into petty trading such as selling of yams, potatoes and other cash crops.
“We want them to learn how to make their deliveries via technology on phone without having to move from one place or the other,” she said.
She said that the women were expected at the end of the training to have social handles, be more interactive with people on their platforms, especially with their customers and prospective to sell their talents, products and services.
The ICIN official said that adopting such approach would also enable them to explore financial institutions where they can get access to funds for their business.
She said that the organisation was determined to empower the women from different ethnic and religious groups to be able to build their capacities through technology, not only on peace building skills, but on health, good governance and their overall self-development.
Speaking, one of the facilitators Mr Nasir Ahmed, a digital Marketing expert added that the training would also empower the participants, on how to use digital platforms to advocate for their wellbeing and raise awareness on issues affecting them.
“We have done practical sessions on Facebook marketing and also on using search engine optimisation so that people can see their businesses online either using google or other search engines,” he said.
He said that at the end of the training, support groups would be organised to assist the participants in the use of the technology, adding that ICIN would also organise financial literacy training.
One of the participants from Jos North Local Government, Ms Joyce Markus, a cloth knitter, thanked ICIN for the training, saying that she had learned how to maintain and expand her business.
Another participant from Bassa Local Government Area, Mrs Umul Abubakar, a smallholder farmer, said that she was optimistic that her social handles created at the training would help her to reconnect with many of her customers whom she lost their contacts.
The participants were also trained on simple design of logos, pictures and videos, tools of social media marketing, brand awareness and feedback monitoring, among others.