Starting and running a business in Nigeria especially as a woman can be very challenging. From limited finance opportunities, work-life conflicts to cultural barriers and limited mentoring opportunities, it is a different ballgame entirely.
To help you handle these challenges and grow your business, this article will provide you with 9 practical tips and advice to help you succeed as a woman entrepreneur in Nigeria.
What Are the Challenges Facing Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria Today?
Some of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Nigeria include
- Limited access to funds.
- Social and cultural limitations.
- Limited access to networking opportunities.
- Work-life balance.
- Financial illiteracy, etc.
9 Tips and Advice for Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria
- Develop a Strong Belief in Yourself and Your Abilities: As a woman entrepreneur, you must believe in yourself and your abilities. Self-doubt can prevent you from taking necessary risks to start and grow your business. This confidence in yourself will help you to persist through setbacks, failures and rejections in your entrepreneurship journey.
To build your self-confidence:
- Practice self-affirmations daily.
- Celebrate your progress.
- Surround yourself with positive people, etc.
- Start Building Your Personal brand: In 2025, the importance of having a strong personal brand cannot be overemphasized. A strong personal brand increases your customers’ trust in your business.
It creates visibility around your products and services. It also attracts opportunities to your business.
To build a strong personal brand, start promoting yourself in any social media that your target audience are like LinkedIn, Tiktok, Facebook, etc.
- Look for Mentorship Opportunities Around You: As the famous Isaac Newton quote says: If I have seen it further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
As a woman entrepreneur, you must learn to seek mentorship opportunities from other experienced entrepreneurs who have gone ahead of you. They can provide you with experience-backed advice and guidance which would be useful to the growth of your business.
They will also teach you how to avoid mistakes and obstacles they have made in running their own business. So, look for other women entrepreneurs in your industry to learn from.
You can also join mentorship programs especially ones created specifically for women like Women in Management, Business, and Public Service (WIMBIZ), African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), etc.
- Learn to Balance Your Personal and Business Responsibilities: One challenge faced by women entrepreneurs is learning how to manage their business and their personal life at the same time.
Apart from business, many women entrepreneurs have families to take care of. To ensure none suffers for the other, you need to strike a balance between them so you don’t get burnout or overwhelmed.
Here are a few ways to do this:
- Intentionally set boundaries between your business and your personal life.
- Learn to delegate tasks: You can’t balance your personal life and business when you try to do everything on your own.
So you need to delegate tasks to other people in your business. If you can, consider hiring an assistant to do some other tasks for you so you can focus on the most important ones.
- Regularly take breaks: If you continue to work throughout the year and refuse to take breaks to recharge yourself, you can end up burnout, tired and stressed. It can also affect your mental health and even your physical health. So you need to take time to rest and take care of yourself.
Also, you could go on vacations or just devote some specific days to rest and take a break.
- Look for Alternative Ways to Finance Your Business: One of the major challenges that Nigeria women entrepreneurs face is the limited access to finance opportunities for their business.
A 2023 study revealed that only 10% of commercial loans in Nigeria are provided to women-owned businesses. Apart from this, many bank loans require collaterals like land, houses, which most Nigeria women do not have.
To finance your business, you need to look for alternative financing options especially ones created to support women entrepreneurs such as zero/low interest grants, microfinance schemes, etc.
Examples of such programs include:
- SheVentures by FCMB.
- Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Programme.
- Bank of Industry (BOI) Women’s Fund.
- National Women Empowerment Fund (NAWEF).
- Continuously Improve Your Skills: As a woman entrepreneur, you need to continuously invest in skill development and training.
This will ensure you are always updated on trends in your industry and also help your business stay competitive.
To improve your skills:
- Regularly attend seminars and workshops in your industry.
- Take advanced online and offline courses that would expand your skills.
- Read books and publications in your industry, etc.
- Build and Develop Your Network: As a woman entrepreneur, you need to consciously grow your professional network. As the saying goes, your network is your net worth.
The people you know matters a lot. There are opportunities you will only have access to by being in certain circles.
To grow your network, attend events, conferences and programs where you can meet other entrepreneurs. Don’t just attend, mingle and connect.
- Develop Strong Financial Literacy: As a woman entrepreneur, you need to be financially literate and have more than a basic understanding of financial management.
This is very important to grow your business in the long run. You need to understand how money goes and leaves your business.
To do this:
- Take financial classes or courses.
- Attend financial literacy programs.
- Read financial books and publications like Smart Money Woman, The Richer Woman, etc.
- Stay updated on financial trends in the country.
- Have a Separate Account for Your Business and Personal Expenses: As a woman entrepreneur, you need to have separate accounts for your business and personal needs.
This will help you understand the cash flow of your business, how much profits you are making and how much you need to reinvest in your business.
It will also help to sustain your business in the long run or else you might end up spending your business profits on your personal needs.
Conclusion
To succeed as a woman entrepreneur in Nigeria, you need to develop a strong belief in yourself, build strong networks, and expand your skills regularly.
The 9 tips above will guide will guide you in building a sustainable and successful business as a woman entrepreneur in Nigeria.
To learn more tips and advice on succeeding as a woman entrepreneur in Nigeria, Register here for our upcoming webinar coming up at 6pm on March 8 in celebration of the International Women’s Day.