About the project
With a strong relationship between illiteracy and poverty, it is of little wonder that poverty wears a feminine face in Nigeria. The feminization of poverty forms the background of this project.
SponsorHER Cycle 2 is an empowerment initiative with the objective of facilitating small business grants for nano-scale female entrepreneurs between the ages of 21 and 50 in low-income communities.
Women’s economic empowerment boosts productivity and increases economic diversification and income equality in addition to other positive development outcomes. With the SponsorHER project, we are providing a sustainable way for disadvantaged women to be financially independent.
Although this project focuses on women, it is a pipeline-blocking project. If women are lifted out of poverty, they are more likely to look after their children who will be less likely to become marginalized youths.
Target Beneficiary
Nigerian women aged between 21 to 40 years, who are excluded from socio-economic and political decision processes with no formal education, earning <$2 daily income (possible domestic abuse victim).
Implementation Process:
- We identify a low-income community and carry out a needs assessment by meeting with disadvantaged women around the community. (The needs assessment helps us to determine the suitability of potential beneficiaries to benefit from the project.)
- We then organise a business advisory session with each woman to discuss effective ways to scale their nano-businesses.
- We secure sponsors/donors for the selected beneficiaries.
- To ensure the grant is used for its intended purpose, we never hand over the funds to the sponsored woman. Instead, we directly pay for whatever is needed to scale the business as agreed by the sponsored woman and business adviser.
This project will achieve the following
- Mobilisation of financial resources to support the business initiatives of Nigerian women in project execution areas.
- Close the gap of poverty in society by reducing the unemployment ratio, especially amongst women.
- Encourage more disadvantaged women to start small-scale businesses to fend for themselves.
- Teach women self-reliance.
- Increase in women’s involvement in nation-building.
SponsorHER Cycle 1
The first cycle of SponsorHer was launched on the 9th of March date, 2021. 30 women from the Ijeshatedo community in Lagos state were sponsored with grants to scale their nano businesses. See their stories here
SponsorHER Cycle 2
The second cycle of SponsorHER was launched on March 8 2022. The second cycle aims to sponsor 40 women from selected low-income communities. Twenty-six beneficiaries (25) have been sponsored by partners, Ohanele Law Firm while fifteen women are awaiting sponsorship. Sponsor a woman here.
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Impact stories
FAQs
We select the sponsored women organically leveraging our relationship with local community leaders. The women are selected using the following criteria:
- 21 to 35
- Business owners or skilled workers
- The breadwinner of the family with more than one child or dependent earning <$2 daily income.
We then use a test of vulnerability to further narrow the pool of potential beneficiaries.
When a woman is sponsored, she has a consultation with our business adviser to determine the best use of the grant. Usually, it would be the purchase of inventory, equipment, tools, and/or the building of a shed. To ensure the grant is used for its intended purpose, we never hand over the funds to the sponsored woman. Instead, we directly pay for whatever is needed to scale the business as agreed by the sponsored woman and business adviser.
We send details of the sponsored woman’s business advisory as well as how the grant was spent to the sponsor. We also revisit the sponsored woman after the 3 months to assess how she has managed her business and provide more business advice.
How to support
If you would like to sponsor a woman in the next cycle of our SponsorHER Initiative, Please send an email to sponsorher@velocityinitiatives.org.