By Kingsley Adegboye

Standard Chartered in partnership with Village Capital has launched the 6th edition of its Futuremakers 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 5 editions which has seen 25 winners emerge to date collectively receiving over USD 250,000 in seed funding for their businesses in addition to leadership advisory sessions. 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 programme targets female-led entrepreneurial teams and provide them with training, mentorship, and seed funding. Similar to the last edition, in this edition, will go through during which they will interact with industry experts, business development coaches and executives, according to a statement by the organization.

The 2025 WITI cohort offers 10 young businesswomen during a 12-week executive bootcamp opportunities for Expert-Led Entrepreneurial Training, Business Mentorship from seasoned business development professionals, Investor Pitch Opportunities for access to funding and the opportunity to be part of a Vibrant Community of female innovators in Nigeria, the statement further noted, adding that “At the end of the training period, five winners with the most compelling ideas will be chosen and each winner will be awarded 10,000 USD in equity free grants to scale their solutions in addition to other benefits including continuous business mentoring and advisory support for their business.” Commenting on the launch of the fifth edition, Joke Adu, Head Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Nigeria, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited said, “We are pleased to continue empowering female entrepreneurs in Nigeria through the SC Women in tech Incubator. We are optimistic about the impact this programme will have on the socio-economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

“The support the beneficiaries get will go a long way in ensuring the sustainability of their businesses while creating employment for more women and youths in the country.’ She added that, 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.”

Dr. Nneka Okekearu, Director, Enterprise Development Centre, Pan-Atlantic University, added, “Accelerating women in technology to scale is crucial for fostering innovation and growth in the ecosystem. In collaboration with the Standard Chartered Foundation and Village Capital, we are excited to support and launch the sixth cohort of enterprising women to lead and innovate across Africa’s growing digital economy.”

Following the successful launch of the programme in Nigeria in 2019, the programme has rolled out in other markets including Bahrain and Zambia.

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.

Nigeria was the 2nd market to launch the programme in Africa and partners with the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the PAN Atlantic University as its implementation partners.

The supported ventures over the years span a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, fashion, renewable energy, health, education, and sustainability, demonstrating the diverse and transformative potential of women-led innovation.