Standard Chartered Bank invests over $1m towards Women in Tech Incubator Programme, Says Aderugbo

 

The Woman in Tech, (WiT), Incubator Programme of Standard Chartered is a programme designed to help female Tech-preneurs identify, grow and bring to the market unique business ideas. Dayo Aderugbo, Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and West Africa, in this interview with Eberechi Constance, gives us details of the programme, their continuity and successes, reminds women of the need to celebrate their uniqueness as business owners thriving to make a difference in Nigeria, Excerpts:

Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and West Africa, Aderugbo

 

Why are we here today?

 

We are here for the graduation ceremony of Cohort 4 of our Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubator

 

This is the fourth cohort, and in every cohort we have 10 women whose business is centered on technology to drive their business.

 

They go through an incubation programme with Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), that’s the Lagos Business School who is the partners in this programme.

 

So, they go through the whole cycle finance credits, branding, bookkeeping and everything they have to go through standard chartered Bank that pays for that through EDC. And then, at the end of the programme as you have seen today, 10 women are shortlisted out of which 5 gets the grants money of $10,000 each to help their business And aside from the grants money, Standard Chartered is available to the 10 ladies as the engine of growth for their business, whenever they need, from the expertise we have amongst staff in the bank, globally, not just in Nigeria.

The objective of this is as Africans, especially as Nigeria and women go through a lot.

 

The world is going digital and technology is the engine of growth for every business even in banking. Banking is going digital the future of banking is digital and no longer branch banking. And so, without technology in any business in Nigeria, it will be very difficult for that business to grow.

 

But, as a woman, I must repeat again that there’s a lot we lack in Nigeria, being in a developing country.

 

How many applicants do you have in every cohort?

 

We have more than 200 applications. And as you see today, we have applications from New York, we have applications from Abuja, so it’s not just open to Lagos, or to where we do business.

 

It’s open to every Nigerian everywhere in the world and I am very proud that one of the winners today was an applicant from New York.

 

Why Women in Tech in Nigeria?

 

It is because, in Nigeria, female population comprises of 49.34 per cent of the total population of Nigeria.

With fewer income generating opportunities for the population at large, this leaves nearly half of the population constituting women deprived of economic empowerment through employment, professional growth and livelihood opportunities.

 

Similar to several emerging markets like Pakistan and Brazil, Nigeria is currently passing through a demographic transition, which has resulted in an increase in the working-age population as the youths comprise nearly half of the population, as a share of the total population.

 

To reap the ‘demographic dividend’ of this change, the economy needs to provide education and create productive and remunerative employment for young workforce entrants.

 

Moreover, innovation through digitization and entrepreneurship is a crucial and workable element in human capital development. It is this conviction that has powered our commitment to set up opportunities for growth of women entrepreneurs globally.

 

For us at Standard Chartered Bank, the Women in Tech Incubator, is one of the many ways we continue to reiterate our Bank’s promise to be “Here for good.”

 

We are optimistic that the programme will continue to help female tech-preneurs and identify, grow and bring to the market unique business ideas, while reminding them to celebrate their uniqueness as business owners thriving making a difference in Nigeria.

 

Can you please, tell us how the qualified applicants were selected?

 

Yes, the process is you submit your application to Enterprise Development Centre (EDC)

 

The EDC is to shortlist the applications send it to the bank where we review and see which one has the most impact. What we focus on in Standard Chartered is what the impact would be for businesses in Africa, not just in Nigeria.

 

And also as you heard today, we were mostly focused on is the impact of what all these gaps we’re trying to bring, and what technology will do to these businesses and how will it impact on the ordinary Nigerian.

 

Please, tell us the amount that Standard Chartered Bank has invested in the last four years?

 

We have invested over $1million towards the programme in training, seed funding, employee volunteering and continuity development and intend to keep doing more because we see the impact on the businesses and economy through job creation as their businesses grow.

 

As a Bank in Nigeria, we have created a strong legacy in the community investment area through various initiatives including health and education.

 

We take immense pride in the successes achieved over the years with the WIT programme – the first of its kind in Nigeria.

 

Our commitment to sustainability is not only about the business activity we finance but also about how we run our business.

 

We are focused on building a business consistent with our values and it is this commitment that has seen Standard Chartered prioritise investing in communities as a key pillar in our sustainability policy.

 

We seek to be a force for good promoting sustainable economic and social de­velopment in the communities where we operate and the WIT programme is just one of the ways we are able to successfully do that.

 

Since the 1st Cohort in 2019, we have successfully supported 20 amazing tech-preneurs to grow their businesses and I am personally always extremely pleased to read about how well they are doing.

 

We have other programmes where we teach young girls from underprivileged communities, life skills using soccer as a tool.

 

Is your bank looking forward to increasing the budgets and recipients of these ongoing projects in the long run?

 

Yes, we actually are looking forward to increasing the number of recipients .We are in talks with the EDC to probably reducing the amount it takes to run the programme so that we can get more grants for people, but the programme itself is highly funded.

Are you saying Standard Chartered Bank is involved in other capacity building projects for Nigeria?

 

Yes. After the launch of Futuremakers our signature Community Impact initiative focussing on Entrepreneurship, Employability and Education as a means towards economic empowerment for youths, we have impacted over 7,000 entrepreneurs including People Living with disabilities and tertiary level entrepreneurs.

 

We have supported over 500,000 girls since 2011 through Goal, our global programme where we empower adolescent girls through a combination of sports and life skills training.

 

And between 2006 and 2019, seeing is believing, our programme to tackle avoidable blindness, we raised over US $1million to fund up to 30,000 free cataract surgeries.

 

For those who may be new to the programme, it is specifically designed for women-led technology ventures.

 

Selected Women Founders receive not just pre-seed funding but also high-quality mentoring, acceleration, and post-accelerator commercial support to help scale their entrepreneurial ventures.

 

It aims to support female entrepreneurship, aligning with calls for more diversity in tech and for more opportunities for women to develop entrepreneurial and leadership expertise.

 

How are these ongoing projects at the global level?

 

Globally we have invested in more women entrepreneurs focusing on technology with the first one being launched in New York in October 2014 and the second one launched in Kenya in September 2017.

 

Over the last couple of years we have launched in Zambia, Pakistan, Ghana, UAE, South Africa and more recently Saudi Arabia with the aspiration to launch more tech incubator and accelerator programs for women within the Africa and the Middle East region in the coming years.

 

We believe in continuity and the establishment of sustainable projects and initiatives that have a ripple effect advantage in the community and country at large.