Between October and December 2024, the Itaja Project was launched, training 45 rural women, with 19 of them receiving revolving grant support and a few one-time grants to scale their businesses. This initiative led by Durian Nigeria focuses on providing business development training and support to rural women who own small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or have business ideas but lack the funds to start. Through this project, we are tackling rural poverty, which is mostly driven by a lack of access to resources, knowledge, and funds needed to scale.
The program takes place once every month and includes a one-week immersive training on bookkeeping, sales, and marketing. During the training, participants learn essential business skills, including cashbook management, profit and loss calculations, budgeting, stockkeeping, the importance of savings, and marketing strategies. After the training, the women pitch their business ideas before a panel that selects the qualified recipients of the grant.
Durian Nigeria plays a crucial role in supporting these women beyond the training period by providing grants directly to help them scale their businesses after they have pitched their ideas. Durian Nigeria leads the project and has just secured a partnership with OFEM Micro Credit Bank to handle the revolving grant process. We are actively seeking additional partners to join us on this journey to ensure we have sufficient grants to support more women in scaling their businesses.
Our support for the women doesn’t end here. Moving forward, we will continue to offer retraining opportunities, and provide access to loans and ongoing support. The journey has just begun, and we eagerly anticipate the positive impact these empowered women will create in their communities.
Our goal for 2025 is to offer this service to 1,000 rural women across Nigeria. As the Itaja Project continues to grow, it reaffirms the importance of investing in women as drivers of change. With plans to expand its reach and replicate its model in more communities, the project remains a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and resilience in unlocking the potential of rural women.
