U.S. Consulate Academy for women entrepreneurs churns out 250 graduates
…No one does empowerment like U.S. Mission in Nigeria — Valedictorian, Olusola Sowemimo
Abimbola Abatta
No fewer than 250 businesswomen have graduated from this year’s edition of the U.S. Consulate Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).
The graduation ceremony was held with fanfare at Lagos Continental Hotel, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos on Thursday.
Nigerian NewsDirect reports that the AWE programme, which was established in 2019, is a U.S. government initiative designed to cultivate entrepreneurial know-how of women and connect them with funding opportunities that can help expand their businesses.
This year’s programme in Nigeria was facilitated by the U.S. Consulate General Lagos in collaboration with Venture Garden Foundation, and Ascend Studios Foundation, founded by Dr Inya Lawal, an alumna of the Fortune-U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership programme.
The 250 graduands, who were selected from a pool of over 16,200 applicants, acquired business management and tech skills, networked with business leaders and women entrepreneurs and also gained knowledge on how to prepare business plans and raise capital for their businesses.
Acting Consul General James Suor, in his remarks at the event, underscored the importance of women empowerment to economic and national growth.
Suor said, “I will like to congratulate the 250 women entrepreneurs. AWE was established in 2019 to provide women with skills to scale their businesses to the next level. When women are empowered, it creates a multiplier effect.”
He, thereafter, charged the graduands to take what they have learnt to grow their businesses as well as improve their lives.
Earlier in her welcome address, the President of the Academy, Inya Lawal commended the U.S. government, noting that “the U.S. mission in Nigeria is getting it well in terms of empowerment.”
Lawal said the programme provided the participants access to mentors who would help them scale their business, give them advice that are needed and then, partners who would give them access to funding.
“So it’s a whole package for the Academy for the Women Entrepreneurs and more importantly the net worth that they have. This year, we had two hundred and fifty women. If you are one of the 250, imagine having 249 other people who you can network with. Some of them become partners, some who are distributors get producers, some who are producers get distributors. The support that is needed for every woman is what AWE offers.
“This year, we’ve been running for over two months. We had virtually facilitated sessions and now we’re having the in-person session. We usually start with the virtual programme that runs for about two months and then we end it with a 3-day conference like we had here. So we’ve been here for three days,” she noted.
To choose participants, Lawal said, “We look for women who are already making some profits, running existing businesses and who also need the right structure in their businesses to scale. So you must be running a business, be an entrepreneur before you’re selected and then you must have a fantastic business we can help you with in terms of structures and scale.”
In her address, U.S. Consulate Deputy Public Affairs Officer, Jennifer Foltz, lauded the graduands, maintaining that she was impressed by their passion, dedication and innovation.
Her words, “What is so interesting is that you (the graduands) can change the world and employ more women. You are a special group. Your branding, marketing, and confidence are so impressive. AWE is different because it doesn’t end with graduation bur it affords you the opportunity to keep learning and growing even afterwards. Remember it’s about collaboration, not competition. I hope you will continue to make us and yourselves proud.”
Delivering her speech, the Valedictorian, Olusola Sowemimo, who applauded the opportunities made available through the initiative, disclosed that “No one does empowerment like U.S. mission in Nigeria.”
According to her, “The training sessions were highly impactful. The knowledge every facilitator shared was mostly from personal experiences and that made a difference because all of us, the phenomenal graduands of the day, already have our well drawn, and we are glad to be here today.
“When some of us describe the whole experience, I hear words like transformational, life changing, game changer, and exceptional among many others. Ladies, please allow me to say that to whom much is given, much is expected. Someone once said a woman by intuition is a formidable force.”
While admonishing her fellow graduands, she said, “Let us top our intuition. It will empower us to make decisions. It will make us to become stronger and happier. My fellow graduands, we are stronger together. We are formidable, committable and unstoppable forces. When we go round to conquer the world, let us all rise and be the loudest.”
In an interview with Nigerian NewsDirect, one of the beneficiaries, Chyllean Azuh, said her experience at the programme has been awesome “because I got to learn from others and the facilitators as well, especially how to pitch my business plan. Of course, there are so many ideas but then how to put it out there. So I’m creating a business. Already, I have an NGO and other business plans in my head. So I’m going out there to make what I’ve leant to work.”
Another participant, Okiam Tessy, who hopes to start a business in the fashion industry, said, “I will say that I learnt a lot because I’m a kind of person that only wanted to do focus on my academics. But here, I have learnt that you cannot just focus on one source of income. Although, it’s good to be an academician, you still need to empower yourself and have your personal means of income without depending on white-collar jobs or government.
“So for me, it’s a channel which made me learn the undeniable fact that I need to go into something. Although I learnt a few skills before I went to the higher institution, but I didn’t take them seriously because I thought everything was about going to school. But now, I know better.”
For Animasahun Aminat Aderayo, a CEO whose company deals with the production of shoes, bags and accessories, being a beneficiary of the AWE is an amazing experience and opportunity to be trained for 2 months on business training.
In her words, “It’s been awesome. We learnt about branding, giving back to the society, impact. Yes, we need to make Nigeria better. We also learnt about marketing and all aspect of business generally and we are bonding.
“Today (Thursday) is our graduation and we all in the next few months are going to implement all that we have learned, improve our businesses, expand our businesses and ensure that we employ more youths and women so that Nigeria can become a better place.”
