…As NDDC, Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria unlock wealth in female entrepreneurs
About 12.8million or 80 percent businesses owned by women in Nigeria fail in the first five years, according to 2021 data. This may be higher today.
Women also own at least 40percent of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria where Nigeria had over 40m by 2021.
Now, the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN) in Port Harcourt District and Society says they know why businesses owned by women fail and the solutions to this. SWAN in Port Harcourt is led by Isioma Onwo, a fellow the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
SWAN said they did a study and found seven key factors that crash SMEs, especially the ones run by women. The most glaring, they said, is failure to separate personal funds from that of the business. Another is lack of use of bank accounts in running all manner of businesses. They also identified lack of book keeping and record keeping, and many more.
To tackle this, SWAN partnered with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to turn this situation around in the oil region.
They thus organised a one-week training scheme for 180 female entrepreneurs for specialised training which treated the above problems including use of social media as critical tools in modern businesses.
The female entrepreneurs were said to be also put through the criticality of books and records which is systematic daily recording of financial transactions.
Other critical areas were tax awareness, record keeping and filing, instruction to accounting applications (Excel and Quick Books), internal control mechanisms, and financial literacy.
The women were also introduced to special bank facilities such as Fidelity Bank’s ‘FundHer’ scheme.
Speaking about the empowerment and training scheme, Samuel Ogbuku, the managing director of NDDC, emphasized the importance of financial literacy and capacity-building for women entrepreneurs, affirming that empowering women translates to empowering families and the wider nation.
He urged the participants to take the training seriously for business growth and sustainability so as to justify the investment in their careers.
Speaking also at the graduation ceremony, the MD, who was represented by Winifred Madume, director, agric/fisheries, hailed the technical input and mentorship that the chartered accountants brought in grooming a new generation of women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta. The MD said the scheme brought out the commitment of the NDDC to empower women to sustain SMEs in line with the NDDC’s mission of inclusive development.
He said feedbacks showed readiness of the beneficiaries to grow after the impactful training. He declared the readiness of the Commission to do more with SWAN.
Throwing some light on the scheme, Onwo (the SWAN chairperson) told BusinessDay: “We have just concluded the graduation ceremony for a training programme that started since Monday, September 22, 2025 whereby the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) partnered with the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria, Port Harcourt Chapter (SWAN PH) to train Niger Delta women entrepreneurs in the following areas; Bank and Social Media Account Opening, Bookkeeping, Accounting applications such as Excel and QuickBooks, Internal Control, Filing, Tax Awareness and Financial Literacy.
These skills are expected to help them keep proper records of their businesses so they can monitor their businesses and know how well their businesses are doing. It will also help them in making more informed decisions concerning their businesses.
On apprehension of SMEs and women entrepreneurs over record keeping for fear of the tax master, Onwo, who holds a doctorate degree, said: “One of the training topics was on Tax awareness and why it is important to pay taxes since the government helps to provide an enabling environment for businesses to operate in. The Government has also created a lot of tax exemptions for SMEs and low-income earners.”
On what SWAN set out to achieve, she said it was to reduce high mortality rate of women-run businesses. “Through our research, we found out that a lot of small and medium sized businesses fail just because of lack of proper record keeping. SWAN PH thought it wise that women entrepreneurs be trained so they can do business more professionally and profitably. For instance, a lot of the participants told us they did not even know they were supposed to keep their personal finances separate from their business finances.”
She thanked God and the NDDC for the success of the programme. “We advise entrepreneurs to pay attention to bookkeeping to support the sustainability of their businesses.”
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One of the beneficiaries, Ukaegbu Chizaram, speaking for the group at the graduation ceremony, poured huge appreciation on the NDDC for empowering women entrepreneurs in the region. She also commended SWAN and ICAN for delivering impact in the training, saying entrepreneurship has become an achievable target.
The event was seen by many as a major breakthrough in empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta. The event that took place in Port Harcourt in the week saw 180 women graduate from a scheme initiated and executed by a partnership between the NDDC and SWAN, Port Harcourt District and Society.
The one-week training which began on Monday, September 22, 2025, with an opening ceremony graced by the topmost management personnel of the NDDC ended with a graduation ceremony on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at the Horlinks, one of the topmost event centres in Port Harcourt located close to the Marine Base area of the Garden City.
Chiedu Ebie (NDDC chairman), Samuel Ogbuku (the NDDC MD) and Boma Iyaye (NDDC Executive Director, Finance & Administration), with Victor Antai (Executive Director, Projects), joined Ifedayo Agbegunde (Executive Director, Corporate Services), to put in voices to ensure that the project was a success.
Their counterparts from ICAN rolled out solidarity to Isioma Onwo, 7th chairperson of the SWAN Port Harcourt District and Society, in executing the innovative programme for a new generation of competent female entrepreneurs in the oil region.
Hopes were high that the event may continue to extend such empowerment to other entrepreneurs especially women in the oil reduce so as to reduce dependency on paid jobs or oil-related economy. This is expected to be achieved by reducing the high mortality rate of SMEs.
