Diatom Impact calls for women’s participation in business

With gender equality and entrepreneurship being two of the core areas that Diatom Impact focuses on, women-led businesses continue to be focal areas for investment and support.

Recently, Diatom Impact and AGS Tribe announced the launch of the Phoenix Support Fund, an initiative that offers financial support and capacity development to enable businesses affected by the unrest in Nigeria rise from the ashes and emerge stronger, with preference for female-led businesses.

Founded by Ife Durosinmi-Etti, AGS Tribe is a pan-African community built to inspire, connect, and build the capacity of young entrepreneurs and professionals. The main purpose of the AGS Tribe is to build a community of strong leaders who will create more job opportunities that will ultimately reduce unemployment in Africa.

AGS Tribe supports female entrepreneurs through the AGS Women Empowerment Fund (WEF), an investment company focused on seeding and scaling women-owned and women-focused businesses; and the annual AGS Enterprise Challenge, which has been supported by Platform Capital Group over the last 3 years.

Diatom Impact calls for women’s participation in business Pulse Nigeria

Women-owned businesses contribute to the provision of jobs in a continent plagued by high rates of unemployment. The growth of digital platforms in Africa could offer new opportunities to bridge the current gap between insecure informal work and formal employment. There are already about 300 active digital platforms in Africa, employing close to five million workers.

One of the most prominent platforms on the continent is Bookings Africa, a pan-African online marketplace that enables digital work physically & virtually. Bookings Africa facilitates a seamless transaction between service providers, agencies and consumers from sourcing to payment in a way that is safe, transparent, and cost effective for all users.

Founded by Fadé Ogunro and backed by Platform Capital Group, Bookings Africa has an ambitious goal for the next 3 years – to move from providing gigs for its current 10,000 users to providing same for 1,000,000 users. This is very much aligned with the 8th Sustainable Development Goal which promotes inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.

Social enterprises are not left out of the push for women’s participation in business and entrepreneurship. Noticing a need for affordable, eco-friendly sanitary pads among indigent young girls, Tabitha Arenson Abimiku began producing re-useable pads which are provided free of cost to young girls who could not afford them.

Her business, Virtuous Pads, aims to empower women and girls through the provision of our locally produced safe, affordable, sustainable and reusable sanitary pads. Tabitha fulfills the 12th Sustainable Development Goal as all her products are eco-friendly.

A part of Platform Capital Group, Diatom Impact- a social impact and research organization - is focused on 5 areas critical to economic and social development: health, education, entrepreneurship, gender equality and quality of life.

Diatom Impact calls for women’s participation in business Pulse Nigeria

In reference to the work being done in the areas of gender equality and entrepreneurship, Dr. Akintoye Akindele, Chairman, Platform Capital Group said, “Investing in women is the smart thing to do. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where there are more women entrepreneurs than men. Despite this, women-owned businesses remain under sole-proprietorship and often do not scale to the degree that male-owned businesses do.

"Our task at Diatom is to change this practice completely. Women-owned businesses can grow and deliver attractive returns for investors if they have the support, access to networks, and funding that their male counterparts do.”

About Diatom Impact

Diatom Impact is an impact-focused, investment and research organization committed to being a global change agent through collaborative partnerships with communities, corporations, and governments to create solutions that solve entrenched development challenges. We are committed to changing the narrative and practice of development and investment across the African continent.

About Platform Capital

Platform Capital is a growth markets focused, sector agnostic, principal investment and advisory firm. We deploy patient, value accretive capital alongside international and local value investors to create champion businesses with the potential for regional or global scale. Platform also provides end-to-end bespoke Corporate Finance & Capital Markets advisory services. What makes us different is our obsession with changing the African narrative.

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