OLEJU: Transforming Lives Through Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Tech-Driven Empowerment

The Problem: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Among Rural Women

In Nigeria, rural women face significant barriers to economic empowerment:

• 85% of women in rural areas lack access to formal financial services, limiting their ability to save, invest, or secure loans to grow their businesses.
• 80% of female entrepreneurs operate informally, without adequate knowledge of financial management or digital marketing, making them vulnerable to economic shocks.
• The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges. Many women lost their businesses due to lockdowns, highlighting a critical gap in financial literacy and digital skills needed to adapt and reach customers online.

Recognizing these systemic issues, OLEJU transitioned to a more comprehensive model that integrates financial literacy and digital support, empowering women to navigate and thrive in an increasingly digital economy.

Scaling Our Impact: From One Hub to Four Across Delta State

Throught the support of Union Bank of N igeria PLC and Google, our dream to reach more  more women and scale our impact became a reality in 2019/2019, OLEJU expanded its operations to open four entrepreneurship hubs across Delta State, starting with the flagship OLEJU Hub in Sapele. This facility remains the first and only hub in the region dedicated entirely to supporting women entrepreneurs. Here’s how the OLEJU Hubs operate:

1. Identifying Women in Need: We partner with local community leaders to identify women based on need, prioritizing single mothers, widows, and young girls at risk of exploitation.
2. Free Vocational Training: Women receive free training across a wide range of vocational skills, including:
   • Beadworks
   • Fashion Design
   • Bag Making
   • Soap Making
   • Woodwork
   • Shoe Making
   • Arts and Crafts
3. Provision of Training Materials: OLEJU provides all training materials, ensuring that participants have everything they need to learn and create high-quality products.
4. Post-Training Business Support: After training, women are given free workspace for one year within our hubs to continue production and sell their products, enabling them to raise capital for their own startups.
5. Childcare Services: Recognizing the needs of young single mothers, our hubs include a childcare section where mothers can leave their children in a safe environment while they learn and work.

Catalyzing Change with Strategic Funding and Support

Our ability to scale and deepen our impact was significantly boosted by a two-year grant from Google.org (2018-2019). This funding enabled us to:

• Establish additional hubs and train over 2,000 women and girls in diverse skills.
• Provide digital literacy programs that equipped women with essential financial management tools, including bookkeeping and online marketing techniques.

Even after the end of the Google funding in 2019, RUDERF continued to sustain the project through 2023, training an additional 500 women. Through our post-training support model, we also secured local contracts for these women, increasing their income generation and enhancing their business stability.

Expanding Digital Access: Empowering Women Through E-Learning and Offline Financial Literacy Programs

In our commitment to bridging the digital divide and equipping women with essential financial skills, OLEJU launched a unique web application tailored specifically for rural women with limited digital knowledge.

The OLEJU E-Learning Platform

Our E-learning platform, accessible via the OLEJU webapp, offers a range of courses in simplified financial literacy. To ensure inclusivity, the courses are delivered in pidgin English, making the content understandable and accessible to our target audience. Women can access video tutorials covering:

• Basic financial management
• Budgeting and saving strategies
• Understanding loans and microcredit

The platform can be accessed from any internet-enabled device, giving women in rural areas the opportunity to learn and upskill at their own pace.

OLEJU Rural  Business Communities: Inclusion for offline communities

To reach women in off-grid, low-resource communities who may not have consistent internet access, we introduced the OLEJU Business Community Program. This initiative empowers select community leaders, known as OLEJU Champions, to deliver financial literacy training within their clusters:

• Tablet Devices with Pre-Installed Content: Each OLEJU Champion is equipped with a tablet loaded with audio and video courses from our E-learning platform. These materials are designed for offline use, eliminating the need for internet connectivity or data.
• Monthly Cluster Trainings: The Champions conduct monthly training sessions, teaching women in their communities about financial management using the pre-installed courses. This approach ensures that even the most underserved women can access quality financial education.

The Business Community Program has successfully created a network of trained female leaders who multiply the impact of our training efforts in their local areas.

Introducing the OLEJU Finance Tracker

To further support women in managing their businesses, we developed the OLEJU Finance Tracker, a comprehensive workbook designed to:

• Track Business Finances: The tracker helps women record daily sales, expenses, and profits, providing a clear picture of their business performance.
• Simplified Financial Insights: It includes user-friendly guides on interpreting financial data to make informed business decisions, such as identifying profitable products or understanding cash flow trends.

During our pilot program in the Koko community, Warri-North LGA, we distributed 500 free Finance Trackers to local women entrepreneurs. This tool has become an essential resource for participants, enabling them to maintain better financial records and improve their business decision-making.

Small Grants for Business Growth

Understanding the financial constraints faced by many rural women, OLEJU also provided small grants to participants in our training programs. These grants helped women kick-start their businesses, purchase initial inventory, and stabilize their operations as they applied their newly acquired financial skills.