50m Dollars Global Fund Lands in Nigeria: Okonjo-Iweala Backs Women Entrepreneurs in Digital Trade
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has unveiled a $50 million fund to empower women in digital trade
- The fund will equip women-owned enterprises in developing countries such as Nigeria with the skills, resources and networks to compete
- The former Nigerian Finance Minister said that Africa’s share of is still low despite a $30.4 trillion global trade value
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Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has unveiled a $50 million global fund aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs in digital trade.
Known as the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund, the initiative seeks to equip women-owned businesses in developing countries with the skills, resources, and networks to compete in global value chains.
Source: Twitter
Speaking in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala described the programme as a “movement” to ensure women entrepreneurs not only survive but thrive on the global stage.
She noted that while global trade is valued at $30.4 trillion, Africa’s share of digital trade is still below one per cent, a gap Nigerian women must help close.
Nigeria makes the cut
Nigeria is among just four countries selected for the WEIDE Fund’s 2025 rollout, alongside Jordan, Mongolia, and the Dominican Republic.
The country’s selection followed a competitive process involving over 600 business support organisations, with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council standing out for its strong proposal.
Over 67,000 Nigerian women applied for the first cohort.
The plan was to support 100 businesses, but the exceptional quality of applications led to 146 being selected.
Sixteen beneficiaries in the “Booster Track” will each receive up to $30,000 and 18 months of technical assistance, while 130 in the “Discovery Track” will get up to $5,000 and a year of business support.
Sectors and impact
Punch reports that beneficiaries span diverse sectors, including agriculture, information technology, fashion, hospitality, beauty, and manufacturing. Okonjo-Iweala praised their innovation and resilience, calling them “the heartbeat of Nigeria’s entrepreneurial energy.”
She urged awardees to “dream bigger, scale higher, and go further,” stressing that the ultimate goal is not just business growth but job creation and market expansion.
Connectivity and infrastructure challenges
Despite the promising outlook, Okonjo-Iweala warned that Nigeria’s low internet access, with only 45% of the population online compared to the global average of 67%, could limit digital trade opportunities.
She also pointed to unreliable electricity as a major obstacle, advocating for collaboration between the ministries of power, communications, women’s affairs, and trade to sustain and scale the initiative.
She lauded the Nigerian government’s $2 billion fibre optic project aimed at connecting rural and secondary cities, but cautioned that without steady power, digital transformation would remain elusive.
Women in tech: Untapped potential
Okonjo-Iweala highlighted Nigeria’s booming ICT sector, which contributed 18% to GDP in 2022, but lamented that only 30% of tech firms are women-owned.
Source: Getty Images
She called for policies that view women’s empowerment as “smart economics” and warned against imposing customs duties on cross-border digital trade, which could hurt small exporters.
“When women succeed, communities succeed, economies succeed,” she concluded. “This is not just a moral case, it’s an economic one.”
FG rolls out ₦250,000 free grants for MSMEs
Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has unveiled the Federal Government’s state-of-the-art information, communication and technology centre for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MESME) in Cross River state.
This is part of the current administration’s drive to empower entrepreneurs with tools and skills for work.
The unveiling also coincided with the 8th Expanded National MSME Clinics, which brought together federal government agencies, such as CAC, NAFDAC, BOI, and SMEDAN, to tackle business owners’ challenges on-site.
Source: Legit.ng
