How Nigerian women shape initiatives on the global stage
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - she wrote Fighting Corruption is Dangerous.
What you need to know:
- Obama's women empowerment advancements and his potent administrative policies fought for female entrepreneurs, resulting in black women’s businesses growing by over 180 per cent in the US between 2009 and 2018.
- Nigerian women possess an exceptionally resilient work ethic, and are destined for entrepreneurial success.
After his January 20, 2009 presidential inauguration, Barack Obama launched an extensive increase of synchronised funding to the Council for Women and Girls of Colour. This effort produced a $100 million funding resolution through Prosperity Together, a federal government institution, to improve the economic capacity of low-income women and administer venture capital to black women's enterprises.
Obama's women empowerment advancements and his potent administrative policies fought for female entrepreneurs, resulting in black women’s businesses growing by over 180 per cent in the US between 2009 and 2018.
According to the American Community Survey, there are 712,294 Nigerians in the US, with Texas cities of Dallas, Houston, El Paso and Austin commanding 60,000 immigrants from the West African nation. At the height of Obama’s tenure, hundreds of female Nigerian-owned micro, small and medium ventures prodigiously flourished in profits and prestige.
Nigerian women possess an exceptionally resilient work ethic, and are destined for entrepreneurial success. The fastest growing African enterprises in the US are operated by Nigerian women. They include Zuvaa, an African clothing marketplace founded by Kelechi Anyadiegwu and appeared on the Forbes 30 under 30 list; and African Women in Technology (Awit), owned by banking and mortgage industry trailblazer Anie Akpe.
In Napperville, Illinois, Iya Foods, founded by Toyin Kolawole, introduced West African flavours and spices to American plates and was named by Forbes magazine as one of the next top 100 Start-Ups in 2021. So did Atlanta Tech Village based UrbanGeekz, the first multicultural digital news platform, founded by former BBC and NBC broadcaster Kunbi Tinuoye.
Despite their affiliation to entrepreneurial investments, Nigerian women have dominated the corporate world by attaining illustrious positions in international organisations. Amina Jane Mohammed was appointed deputy secretary general of the UN and in January 2017, she went on to chair the UN Sustainable Development Group. Another UN compatriot Bola Adesola was appointed co-vice chair of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) in April 2018; she's a former chief executive officer and managing director of Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria.
Nigeria further has 48 internationally published female writers, including the famous Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Buchi Emecheta, and Africa's preeminent author Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie. However, the most historically distinguished expatriate Nigeria has ever disseminated to the international community is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an ex-World Bank chief and former Nigerian Finance Minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan administrations.
Ngozi was appointed director general of the World Trade Organisation on February 15, 2021. She also serves on the board of Standard Chartered Bank, UK, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) and African Risk Capacity (ARC). In 2005, Euromoney named her the Global finance minister of the Year for combating corruption and rescuing Nigeria from economic deceleration. She subsequently propelled the country to becoming Africa's largest economy in 2014 after instituting financial affirmations that crystallised Nigeria's gross domestic product to $400 billion, transcending South Africa, which was at $317 billion.
Nigerian women’s international accolades are not limited to academic, business and economic glorification. Some 46 female Nigerian basketballers have embellished their universities during the NCAA American college competitions since the early 2000s. A prominent crop of over 20 Nigerian women currently sign their talents in the Women's National Basketball Association (W-NBA). This has exalted Nigeria to a nation with the highest foreign representation in the W-NBA. The notable players include Los Angeles Sparks centre turned ESPN pundit and radio broadcaster Chiney Ogwumike, her sister Nneka Ogwumike, who is the point-guard for Seattle Storm and former college sensation Promise Amukamara, who led Nigeria D'Tigres to the quarterfinals of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The sporting success of the Nigerian women has also adorned the football community. Nigerian female footballers have successively advanced and blossomed to become the highest number of female African contemporaries in China, Europe and the National Women's Soccer League in the US.
Asisat Oshoala, who won three Uefa Women's Champions League titles with Spanish club Barcelona, is currently contracted to San Francisco-based club Bay FC. Other Nigerian women dominating football leagues in the world include Atletico Madrid striker Rasheedat Ajibade, FC Paris goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, Portland Thorns defender Nicole Payne and Uchenna Kanu of Racing Louisville.
The most famous of the Nigerian female footballers is defender Michelle Alozie, who was stamped by England striker Lauren James in the 2023 Women's World Cup group match in Australia. The malicious act propelled Alozie, a Houston Dash defender and Yale University molecular biology graduate, to international fame through videos that went viral on social media.
Nigerian gender expert Solape Akinpelu says in Stripped: An African Woman's Guide to Building Generational Wealth that Nigeria has in excess of 23 million women who command 41 per cent of the nation's micro businesses, the world's largest proportion of female entrepreneurs.
Solape, who is the CEO of the multimillion-dollar finance company HerVest that imparts inclusive finance to African female entrepreneurs, subsequently states that Nigeria has the largest demographic of financially secure black women in the world, with the bulk of them residing within its borders.
Nigeria also consists of the largest number of self-made US dollar female millionaires on the African continent. They include real estate and banking tycoon Haija Bola Shagaya, oil and gas aficionado Daisy Danjuma, prominent architect Fifi Ekanem Ejindu and Forbes-listed Africa's wealthiest woman and the continent’s most powerful oil and gas impresario, Folorunso Alakija.
The writer is a novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).
