Zoho Nigeria has identified low digital adoption as the primary barrier to scaling women-led businesses in the country, despite Nigeria having the highest number of female entrepreneurs in Africa. This was disclosed at the Guardian Woman Festival in Lagos, where stakeholders examined the role of technology in advancing women's business growth. Kehinde Ogundare, country head for Zoho Nigeria, stated that fewer than 30 percent of women-owned businesses in Nigeria use digital tools to manage or grow their operations. He described this gap as a major constraint on scalability, emphasizing that the issue is not lack of talent, capital or ambition, but digital adoption.
Ogundare delivered the keynote address titled "Give Value, Gain Growth: Women Driving Reciprocal Innovation in the Digital Economy," where he highlighted how digital tools such as customer management systems, cloud platforms and online marketplaces enhance productivity and market reach. Zubaida Aliyu, sales manager at Zoho Nigeria, noted that women are increasingly driving digital innovation through collaborative platforms but criticized firms that treat women's digital inclusion as a corporate social responsibility project rather than a strategic business move. She argued that technology creates a level playing field and that companies ignoring this reality are missing growth opportunities.
Zoho said its involvement in the festival supports its mission to provide affordable, enterprise-grade digital solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly those led by women. The company aims to help transition businesses from manual processes to scalable, technology-driven models. Nigeria's informal sector, where women play a major economic role, stands to benefit significantly from improved digital access and infrastructure.
Kehinde Ogundare's declaration that the real bottleneck for women-led businesses is not ambition but digital adoption cuts through the usual rhetoric about female entrepreneurship in Nigeria. By putting the focus squarely on technology access rather than vague appeals for empowerment, he reframes the conversation around measurable infrastructure gaps instead of symbolic support.
The data point—fewer than 30 percent of women-owned businesses using digital tools—reveals a systemic failure in how digital transformation is being rolled out in Nigeria. Despite government and private sector claims of advancing the digital economy, the tools that enable real-time inventory tracking, customer engagement, and financial analytics remain out of reach for most women running small enterprises. This isn't just a gender issue; it's an economic inefficiency that keeps a large portion of Nigeria's informal sector operating below capacity.
For millions of women traders, artisans, and service providers, the inability to adopt digital systems means slower growth, limited customer reach, and vulnerability to market shocks. Without access to cloud platforms or online marketplaces, their businesses remain confined to local networks, unable to scale or compete in a digitizing economy. The real cost is not just individual lost income but stunted job creation and reduced tax potential at the national level.
This moment fits into a broader pattern where private tech actors like Zoho are stepping into spaces the public sector has left underdeveloped. While companies push affordable digital solutions, the absence of coordinated policy, subsidized training, or infrastructure investment means progress remains fragmented and dependent on corporate goodwill rather than national strategy.
💡 NaijaBuzz is an AI-assisted news aggregator. This content is curated from third-party sources — NaijaBuzz is not the original publisher and is not responsible for the accuracy of source reporting. The NaijaBuzz Take is AI-assisted editorial opinion only, not established fact. All persons mentioned are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. NaijaBuzz does not endorse the views expressed in source articles.
