Women entrepreneurs: The rising stars of Nigeria’s economy

Nigerian women have evolved pass the housewife nomenclature which for many years played and in some settings is still playing as an obstacle to women self-worth, especially in Northern Nigeria. Aside that, there are still those who have broken the jinx in various endeavours ranging from fashion, entertainment, photography, film making, modelling, blogging, journalism, politics to mention but a few.

Women both married and single, graduates and undergraduates, some even from their secondary school days play a key role in, especially the economic growth of their various communities while they create thousands of employment opportunities. It is no doubt that, men in recent times from courtship to marriage have a similar taste of what they refer to “Working Class Lady”, personally, I have seen instances where a young man seeking marriage insist in knowing if the lady has interest to engage herself into any sort of venture. When asked, their replies are all same but said differently. It is one thing “I want to marry a working class lady, in case of rainy days”.

Nigeria’s women in both small scale businesses to successful business empires, either in sole proprietorships, partnerships or corporations refer themselves to especially on social media platforms as #BossLady #HerOwnBoss etc. In a country like Nigeria, where unemployment is on the rise, women entrepreneurs’ are intervening with their selfowned businesses while creating job opportunities for others despite the many challenges including poor power supply, insecurity, poor economic policies etc. According to a recent documentary by the BBC, Nigeria has the highest number of female entrepreneurs in the world. The social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are now providing means for both successful and upcoming entrepreneurs’ to promote and advertise their goods and services at a cheaper price.

These women entrepreneurs’ are now the rising stars of Nigeria’s economy, job creators, advocates of the well-being of the girl child and cultural promoters. In fashion and designing, event planning and management, tourism and hospitality, interior decoration, media and publicity, photography has seen the rise of a lot of female CEO’s also Boss Ladies.

In fashion today, we have a lot of female entrepreneurs, designing breathtaking bridal dresses and eye catching casual wears. Some of them include Deola sagoe of Deola, Huddayya couture by Huddayy a Fadoul Abacha,

Kathy Anthony, style temple, threads and buttons, Malaymbis by Maimuna Anka, Aso Ebi couture by Labiba Kabir, Lerouge by Amma Indimi, Elegante by Halima Sheriff, Falketribe by Aisha, northern belleng by Salmah Sanda Ahmadu, dolce by Fatima Sheriff. Other budding enterprenuers in this sector include Faiza Garba, Hanifa Mansur Ahmed, Amina Mukhtar Shagari, Amyrah Talba, Amina Nadada, Artekeeh Ahmed, Amyrah Yabo and many more.

In the beauty industry, we have lots of entrepeneurs. From brides on their wedding day to celebrities, every lady likes to look good both on casual and special occasions. Today we have hundreds of upcoming beauticians and makeup artists who aspire to be like the likes of Tara Durotoye of House of Tara brand, Banke Meshinda Lawal of BMPro, Fatima Mamza of Mamza beauty, Dr. Ivie Ihenyen of Monavee beauty lounge, Amra Mansur of ami Mansur and Bahijjah Bawa of make up by beejay.

In the food, pastry and beverage industry, entreprenuers like Zara Indimi of Tulip bistro, Nusaiba Bashir Kurfi of cakenut_ng, diamond taste by Shatuu Labo, Sauda Ali of juicebox, Halima Salisu Zawiya of halima’s kitchen, Khadijah Yusuf of didees baking, Faridah Audi of creamy bites, Zainab Umar Nassarawa of mxees mocktail, Mufidah Dandawaki of yum box, Amirah Kabir of cake alchemy, Zahra Nadamina of Zamakhs kitchen and cake castle, Ebunwola Momoh of Lady Fern’s home.

In photography we have award winning photographers like TY Bello, Faeza Tafida of Giwarmata photography, Aisha Danbatta of Shutterbug photography,

Amna Fadoul and Khaadija Dameesa. In the media industry, we have the likes of Zainab Balogun, Keturah Kings, Mo Abudu, Linda Ikeji, the highest paid blogger in Nigeria, Ijeoma Ndekwu of Redrick Public Relations, Nnenna Makanjuola of Radiant Health magazine, Damilola Solesi of SMIDS animation studios, Betty Irabor of Genevieve magazine, Maimuna Abubakar of Tozali magazine, Maryam Laushi and Mariam Mohammed of Maktoub magazine.

Finally, other women are supporting various charitable causes and working on making our society better. Maryam Adamu Augie of Ahyahay foundation, Fatima Ganduje of Let’s Talk Humanity, Samirah Haruna Sanusi of the Samirah Sanusi Sickle Cell Foundation, Adenike Akinsemelu of the Green Campus Initiative, Halima Ibrahim Abba of Skills Outside School Foundation, Toyosi Ogunmesi of Medical Techs, Nkem Okocha of Mamamoni limited, Adunola Macaulay of Starlight Reading Club, Bilkiss Adebiyi of Wecyclers, Dr. Ola Orekunrin of Flying Doctor, the first of its kind in the sub Saharan region.

Balkisu Muhammad is a 300 Level Mass Communication Student of Ibrahim Badamasi Babagida University, Lapai.