We believe in empowerment, capacity building for women— LCCI DG, Dr Almona

…Says supporting women has ripple effects on the nation

By Abimbola Abatta

When women are empowered, the benefactor indirectly empowers the community and a whole nation.

Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona, disclosed this on Thursday as she noted that the Chamber is passionate about empowerment and capacity building for Nigerian women.

The LCCI DG made this known in an interview with Nigerian NewsDirect during the 2022 Information Communication Technology and Telecommunication (ICTEL) Expo in Lagos.

According to her, “At the LCCI, we have a form of women group and the idea is to help women to come together and share ideas among themselves and see how they can help each other to improve. We also have that group because sometimes we have foreign investors looking to put money into female-owned business.

“In today’s world, gender diversity is a big thing because all over the world, we are looking to encourage women to grow. We believe that if we empower women, we empower the community. We know that if you help a woman to establish a business, you’re not only feeding the family; you’re feeding a whole nation, so it’s important for me personally to encourage women and support them to increase.

“One thing is clear, a man and a woman could seek fund for their businesses, and the men will usually get. Think the world has recognised this, so a lot of donors agencies are specifying female run businesses.

“At the chamber, we are not just thinking about giving mone, that’s an important fact, but sometimes when you give people money and you don’t enhance their ability to use the money, it is almost meaningless. So we can connect them to businesses that can provide funding and we help build capacity.

“We have a business and education service unit, so that even when they get fund they wi know how to use it. We also provide awareness because sometimes, what they need to do to attract funding is to prepare themselves in a particular way. We help them to be attractive for funding and guide them through the process.”

On the question of whether the LCCI is doing enough, she said, “I don’t think we would get to that point where we’re going to say we’ve done enough because it’s an ongoing journey. But the most important thing is to make progress in a right direction. Een banks now have products for women, so I think we’re making progress in the right direction.”

On the future of digital economy in Nigeria, Dr. Almona said she sees digitalisation as the platform for efficient and profitable businesses.

She said, “We need to see how we can get people to leverage technology specific for them. Sometimes we say everybody wants to do technology, but if you don’t have technology that are appropriate for your business, there are chances that you’re spending money but there’s no value.

“A platform like the ICTEL Expo is to give businesses an idea of what exists, so they can make a decision on what’s good for their business, thereby moving the business forward. Whatever can make you do efficient business and make you profitable will boost the economy, so that’s what we’re looking to do.

“And in a foreseeable future, government can look into investing in private equity and private capital infrastructure. The private sector needs to partner with the government in that regard to ensure that we have the digital infrastructure appropriate for the private sector. That can help us to scale up.”