Female digital entrepreneurs in Africa
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
During the pandemic businesses shut down and traditional jobs were lost forcing people to rethink how they earn a living. Since then one of the biggest shifts in the economy has been the rise of digital platforms – online market places which sell everything from fruit and veg to TVs and kitchen appliances. In Africa women have found new careers using Facebook and WhatsApp as well as ride-hailing apps like Uber and Bolt.
Sam Fenwick meets three women who have found financial independence by starting businesses on these platforms. Josephine Adzogble from Accra in Ghana has a business selling electrical appliances via social media. Ayobami Lawal drives taxis in Lagos, Nigeria. The single mum of four talks about the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated environment. And Sharon Tarit from Eldoret, Kenya sublets properties through AirBnB. She started her business after she was forced to permanently close her shop selling baby clothes during the pandemic.
Sam Fenwick is also joined by lead researcher at Caribou Digital, Grace Natabaalo who explains why it’s important for women to have financial independence and the impact female workers can have on a country’s economy.
Presenter / Producer : Sam Fenwick Photo : Josephine Adzogble, Ayobami Lawal, Sharon Tarit; Credit: BBC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I had this secret. I robbed banks in my spare time. |
| 0:06.4 | Lives less ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:09.4 | This is not a good thing to do because police are after you. |
| 0:14.9 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:19.7 | Today on Business Daily, we're talking to three African women who are earning a living using digital platforms. |
| 0:26.6 | Sharon Tarrett joins us from Kenya. She's using social media platforms to promote her business |
| 0:32.6 | subletting homes to business people and tourists. We hear from single mum of four, Iobami Lowell. |
| 0:39.7 | She earns a living driving for a ride-hailing firm in Lagos in Nigeria. |
| 0:45.1 | And Josephine Exobbly from Ghana explains why so many young women |
| 0:49.7 | are starting to use digital platforms to make money. |
| 0:56.2 | Platform livelihoods are the ways people earn a living by working, trading, renting or engaging in digital |
| 1:03.0 | marketplaces. All of the women we hear from today are doing this by using apps on their |
| 1:08.3 | smartphones. I wanted to talk to the women about why they'd got |
| 1:12.5 | involved and whether their new careers offered them more financial freedom than traditional |
| 1:16.8 | jobs. Unable to meet up in person, the only way to talk is on a video call. Sharon started off by |
| 1:24.5 | telling us why she started her Airbnb business. |
| 1:31.1 | I used to have a baby cloth line that was a physical shop. |
| 1:37.0 | And then during COVID, I had to close it down because I couldn't raise the money for upkeep and all that. So basically I decided to go to the online platform where I decided to do the Airbnb business. |
| 1:43.7 | And explain what you actually do with the Airbnb business, as you call it? |
| 1:48.0 | Oh, so what I do is I rent premises depending on the agreement with the landlords that I have. |
| 1:56.0 | So I take a room and then furnish it and then I now rent it out again as a fully furnished apartment. |
| 2:04.0 | How many properties have you got then that you rent out? |
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