By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AMID daunting challenges in the business environment, the President, Agribusiness and Value Chain, Women Entrepreneurship Forum Africa, WEFA, Nigeria, Princess Adesola Daramola, weekend, disclosed how they have been committed to change the narrative among women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Daramola speaking with Vanguard on the sidelines of a training for financial institution titled ‘Capacity Building Training for Financial Institutions’ in Abuja, organized by HortNigeria in partnership with NIRSAL Plc, said the women entrepreneurs in the agricultural space in Nigeria are doing a lot, therefore, her organization is already working to ensure women entrepreneurs in the country are connected to investors who have already expressed interest in what the women farmers are doing currently.

She said: “WEFA stands for Women Entrepreneurship Forum Africa, founded by Ugandan women and the whole purpose is to like empower and help women entrepreneurs expand in their business and also train, we train, we also get finances for them.

“We are trying to make sure that there is good inter-trade between Africans, we are also taking up people that are interested in starting up an agri-business or working with an agri-business.

“A whole lot, because currently we have people, some investors from the United States, we have also some landowners that are ready to lease out their land for people that are interested in starting up a business in agri-business so that they can lease land to them.

“And we have investors too, we have people that are also, and there are some people that want to partner with Nigerian farmers and some people that want to be exporting farm produce from Nigeria to Uganda.”

Meanwhile, she pointed that women entrepreneurs are really challenged as they have not received the deserved attention due them in the scheme of things.

Therefore, she made it known that a summit tagged ‘Agri-Business and Value Chain Summit 2025’, organised WEFA will hold on September 23-25, 2025, to basically address some of the challenges faced by women and youth within the agribusiness environment.

“In the agri-space, we are putting up together an event, you know, coming in September, and the summit is a conference, an exhibition, a workshop and a collaboration hub. The collaboration hub is where we take on people that are interested in agri-business and value chain, that is, they want to work with people that are into agri-business or they want to start up.

“So we help the startups, we help them get investors, we help them set up their business, and the exhibition where you want to bring in your new innovation, so your new innovation in agriculture, you bring it on board to exhibit so that people will come because we have audience from different parts of Africa.

“The summit will focus on marketing, logistics, people that are into farming proper, both horticulture and other crop farming, livestock, and we are bringing in also a new model called DADO Food Security Model, whereby we are going to encourage local governments to engage in green funds because we complain about transportation and that is why foodstuff are expensive, when we have a little like a bit of greenhouses everywhere in each local government, you can imagine how that will help solve the food insecurity we have and the expenses, and a greenhouse where you can easily get food.

“Having a greenhouse in your estates so that you don’t have to really go out, you can get within your greenhouse when you have a mini-farm mart, and get your stuff”, she added.