For nearly a year, Entrepreneur Meron Getnet has been engaged in agricultural and trading businesses backed by the national Women Entrepreneurs Development Project (WEDP). In fact, the later was the first business Meron had joined after she decided to leave the job that she was employed in her field of study.
Graduated from Dire Dawa University in Survey Engineering and working in the area for one year, Meron had engaged in trading women’s attires to live her passion. It was at this time she decided to work with WEDP. She took online training offered by the project which saves her time, energy and most importantly was supportive to improve her income. She said her confidence on business is developing through time.
Meron is now growing cabbage and broccoli on 5000 square meters of land located in Bishoftu Town, Oromia State. She also employed six people under her business that she called ‘a satisfying job.’ “Once you understand the technique and have the passion, doing business is interesting which avails every emotional and economic advantage,” Meron said.
In fact, it is not only Meron, but there are also more than 45,000 women entrepreneurs who engaged in various businesses supported by WEDP. This project was launched in 2012 with a total of 260.7 million USD budgets in which its first phase was ended on 2021 after creating more jobs for citizens and improving the income of the entrepreneurs.
So far, more than 45,551 customers have been registered in the project to get variety of services including access to microfinance, entrepreneurial skills development and project management. Among the 45,551 women, while some 26,067 took entrepreneurship skill development training, 20, 089 received financial loan. Having this in mind, the government and the World Bank (WB) accorded on the furtherance of the second phase of the project.
The project has been supporting women through offering trainings, financial or technical services. Various business trainings have been given to entrepreneurs either in person or through proxy platforms using mobile phones, said WEDP Coordinator Yohannes Solomon.
The second phase of the project will be functional until 2024. The government, through the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), has been endeavoring not only to avail finance for the project but also to revolve the finance; so that the credit providing capacity of the nation has been strengthened.
Microfinance institutions engaged in the sector provide loans to the businesses with limited amount. But the businesses curiosity to take more loan is increasing through time thereby DBE has signed agreement with Enat Bank and Debub Global Bank to provide the businesses with sufficient amount of loan.
This project has shown a 98.4 percent of loan return which is mainly due to the meticulousness of the women entrepreneurs to return loan on time. This is one of the major pushes that inspire WB to spend additional 100 million Birr finance to the second phase of the project. Many of microfinance institutions also have trust on women entrepreneurs in terms of repaying loan. The project also enabled the institutions to improve their capital. Cognizant of this fact, the number of microfinances involved in WEDP has grown from 12 to 16.
In addition, the number of main cities that benefit from the project has increased from 10 to 18. The newly added main cities are Debre Markos, Dessie, Jimma, Nekemte, Shashemene, Sodo, Arbaminch and Shire in Amhara, Oromia and SNNPs. Since the project covers other satellite cities located within 50 km radius of the main cities, about 151 cities will be benefited in the second phase.
A study conducted by WB in 2019 indicated that WEDP is a successful project in terms of profiting businesses and creating more jobs. The study pointed out that the profitability and hiring capacity of SMEs receiving WEDP services respectively increased by 35 and 44 percent per year, said Mekonnen Zebene, WEDP Inspection and Evaluation Specialist.
The implication is clearly seen in the capacity of women to pay tax and create more jobs so that they stabilize macro-economy. That is why WB is expanding the project to be applied in some African and Asian countries by taking Ethiopia as a role model.
WEDP IT Data Management Specialist Ahmed Mohamed believed that the nation has built an integrated and advanced data management system in which important information is available to customers and partners online. Having a comprehensive and progressive database system is one of the requirements that enabled the WEDP to secure financial support from its partners including WB and EU. This database allows the government and international partners to closely monitor customers’ registration and other progresses of the project.
Ethiopia is currently getting into the digital marketing system in which the WEDP customers will have more capacity to utilize the opportunity. Till then, WEDP is giving home training to customers via cellphone to equip them with the latest knowledge in advancing businesses and expanding market opportunities.
“We are also working on facilitating market opportunities to the businesses stimulated by the support. Currently, we are working with three e-commerce companies to expand market opportunities to the businesses. These companies will enable the businesses to get market through online promotion and product supplying mechanisms,” Yohannes added.
Organizations like Africa 118 and Helloo Market are assisting the WEDP’s efforts in creating digital market for SMEs who supply products and services but could not get any market shade. This, in turn, has enabled women entrepreneurs to access better market in which they sell their products and services online. Accordingly, these organizations are capacitating the skills of women entrepreneurs on utilizing digital market.
Africa 118 Project Manager Evance Rabare said that women have to be empowered and encouraged to widely use digital marketing for the effectiveness of their businesses. That is the reason why Africa 118 is facilitating training in the area. “We have created professional websites for them to be listed on Google business profile. We have planned to give them training widely on social media management and digital marketing,” Rabare said.
For the past three years, Africa 118 has been working with WEDP on Digital Launch Pad project tasked for supporting 500 SMEs in which half of the enterprises are running by women. Africa 118 is also supporting the businesses with GSMA, an online payment system in which the customers of the SMEs can make payment for product and services through telebirr which directly reduced from their account. Accordingly, the service delivery, profitability and employing capacity of the SMEs working with Africa 118 is growing efficiently, the Manager remarked.
Due to poor accessibility and expensiveness of internet services and smartphone, Africa 118 customer businesses in Ethiopia are not that much effective to use digital marketing compared to their counterparts in other African countries like Kenya. Rabare recommended that Ethiopia should work on solving these challenges through improving an online ecosystem to exploit the huge potential for business development and women empowerment via digital marketing.
These days, Meron is working on growing agricultural products and trading women clothes. But she is not confined to the satisfaction she is getting from her current businesses. She also plans to produce more agricultural products by contracting a wide farmland. She has also a dream to establish a largest marketing mall that will have enough space for women entrepreneurs.
In order to guarantee lasting support for effectiveness and profitability of such vibrant women entrepreneurs, crucial projects like WEDP need to have furtherance thereby the national economy will be supported by more job creating businesses. The ministry of Labor and Skill is working on the establishment of an institution that comprised WEDP with Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) to this end. The project together with EDC will be developed into an institution named Entrepreneurs Development Institute. “If this realized, we will provide an enhanced services to both new and existing entrepreneurs in a range of businesses,” Yohannes said.
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
The Ethiopian Herald 12 June 2022
