Standard Chartered Bank (Nigeria) Limited today launched the fourth edition of its SC Women in Technology Incubator, to support and promote the economic and social development of women in Nigeria through innovation or technology led entrepreneurship. This follows the successful completion of the last three editions which has seen 15 winners emerge to date collectively receiving over US$150,000 in seed funding for their businesses. Through this initiative, the Bank continues to focus on capacity building for women-owned small enterprises and sees this as a great opportunity to support greater diversity in gender representation within technology entrepreneurship for women in the country.
The Standard Chartered Women in Tech programme targets female-led entrepreneurial teams and provides them with training, mentorship and seed funding. Like the last edition, in this edition, 11 young businesswomen will go through a rigorous 12-week executive bootcamp during which they will interact with industry experts, business development coaches and executives from Standard Chartered. At the end of the training period, five winners with the most compelling ideas will be chosen and each winner will be awarded up to US$10,000 to invest in their business.
Commenting on the launch of the fourth edition, head Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Nigeria, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited, Dayo Aderugbo, said, “We are pleased the fourth edition of the Nigeria SC Women in tech Incubator is live today. We are optimistic about the impact this programme will have on the socio-economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The support the beneficiaries will get will go a long way in ensuring the sustainability of the businesses while creating employment for more women and youths in the country. We are excited about the endless growth opportunities and ripple effect impact this growth will have on the economy. This initiative builds on the Bank’s track record of increasing women’s access to entrepreneurial finance, employability and supporting adolescent girls and women through financing and capacity building.”
Following the successful launch of the programme in Nigeria in 2019, the Women in Tech program has rolled out in other markets including Bahrain, Ghana, Zambia and more recently Saudi Arabia. Other markets also running incubators include Kenya and UAE.
The Bank first launched the programme to support women in technology in 2014 at the City College of New York, USA where it created the Women Entrepreneurs Resource Centre. The US program includes a dedicated workspace, mentorship, coursework and access to an extensive network designed to support entrepreneurs navigating the challenges of starting a business.
Nigeria was the fifth market selected by the Bank to launch the Women in Tech programme and partners with the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the PAN Atlantic University as its implementation.
