How to Start Selling Hair in Nigeria without a husband?

It started with an app, on a Monday morning. Blessingfearless told me she was ready to start selling hair in Nigeria. She found a great business opportunity that will change the hair market in Nigeria for ever. But she needed a husband to get the capital!

Because that is the way it goes in Nigeria. Men get loans and women must beg. You can have a splendid idea, but if your gender is not male, too bad girl!

But Blessingfearless, as you can see on her Instagram account is full of passion. She really made me fall for the idea too. I wanted to help her, with or without a husband!

The fact is if you want to start selling hair in Nigeria, women are second in line compared to men. The World Bank is fully aware of this. They started to develop programs to support women because Africa will only see major improvement if African women are empowered.

So, I started my quest for capital to help Blessingfearless finding a husband. Sorry, I mean finding a loan.

Why would someone need a husband to start selling hair?

“There is growing global evidence that shows that ensuring economic opportunities for women is an important entry point for addressing gender inequality and ensuring better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families”. This sentence, in a report of the World Bank, tells the male part of the world that by empowering women the only way up for many areas in the World.

Imagine, the growth of the total economy in Nigeria, that is now around 2.1 percent for, could have been 3.3 percent if gender equality would have been reached. This means the Nigerian economy would grow faster than the US economy under Trump or Obama!

To reach this equality between the sexes quite some regulation has or had to change. Some examples are the law on prohibition of inhumane treatment of widows (2001) in Edo state and the Child Rights Act 2003 in Ogun. Nigeria is in the top ten of countries with the highest levels of gender discrimination!

As small producers and asset holders, Nigerian women have greater difficulty reaching economies of scale, which affects their competitiveness. In other words, Nigerian female entrepreneurs face a lot of difficulties to grow their business. As a result, they have limited bargaining power with suppliers and buyers, restricting their ability to earn profits.

Time to Change, Empower women

The Nigeria for Women Project

Through the Nigeria for Women Project, a project initiated by the World Bank, 324,000 women will benefit through investments in comprehensive skills training, the leverage of financial and technical resources, and support to policy dialogue on women’s economic empowerment.

This first World Bank-assisted standalone gender operation in Nigeria was approved in June 2018. This also created and strengthen Women Affinity Groups to facilitate social networks and increase women’s voice and participation in the economy.

How to get access to female friendly financing?

Thanks to the above-mentioned movement, there are several initiatives and organisations active to support women empowerment. This helped to change the mindset and inspired several organisations to develop women friendly loan facilities.

FEMFUNDS for women selling hair in Nigeria

Femfunds is a social enterprise that provides interest free and collateral free loans to women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (also called MSMEs) in Nigeria.

They give women with small businesses everything they need to build profitable businesses which in turn creates a cycle of empowered women who go on to empower other women.

The vision of FEMFUNDS is to create sustainable female-led businesses that can contribute in a positive way to the economic development of Nigeria. Thanks to the important role of women in society.
They provide funds, or capital, to enable business to grow, to replicate a business in another location and to provide capital a business needs to survive.

There are various lines to support women, like interest free loans, with no collateral and advisory to female run small businesses, like mentoring, coaching and workshops on branding, marketing and other intellectual resource to help the businesses.

FemFunds promises hassle free financing.

Evaluation criteria

FemFunds follows the next evaluation criteria when evaluating a business in need of capital:

• Stage of Business, they look for businesses that are already operational
• Sector, FemFunds invests in businesses across sectors
• Revenue, FemFunds is interested in businesses that are post-revenue, have a clear pathway to profitability and possess strong growth trajectory
• Product Market Fit, FemFunds looks for businesses that will work well in the Nigerian context
• Structure, properly structured and where this is not the case, if a business is selected, FemFunds will help the business become better structured
• Competitive Advantage, the business should have a clear competitive advantage and a unique value proposition

It is clear, FemFunds offers great financing possibilities, but only if you have the capital to start a business. Blessingfearless has the idea to start selling hair in Nigeria and will not qualify for this program. Let’s continue our search for capital for women with plans to start selling hair in their State.

W Power loan Access Bank if you want to start selling hair in Nigeria

This offer seems to be much more what Blessingfearless needs. Access Bank understands the position women come from. They have set up a financing that answers all their needs if they want to step into business. Within 30 days after opening a corporate bank account, Blessingfearless can apply for the W Power Loan.

The W Power Loan package comes with benefits such as:

• business advisory services,
• a flexible repayment period
• a low interest rate as well as
• flexible security options, to ease the minds of the passionate business owners in their own words.

Access bank has taken measures to accommodate women in need of capital to fund their business. On top of this they share some advice, that will be helping you finding a loan from any other bank or organisation.

Understand your business and convince others

Woman are great in organizing, that makes them great entrepreneurs because doing business is all about connections. But sometimes this stand in the way to document the business processes. To get a profitable business you need to be able to understand the environment, the market and the processes. Before you make any appointment with anyone who can give you access to a loan or capital, come up with a business plan.

Your hair business deserves more attention than a side hustle

Microsoft started their business in a garage, and many successful hair businesses started in the living room. If you want to make serious money, you need to take the business serious. Register your business before you apply for a loan. If you do not take your business serious, why would the bank officer do? Some banks can help you with the registration.

Be real, have open a corporate account

Keep your personal financial means separate from your business, do not mix private and business on your bank account. This will also reduce the expenses for the bookkeeping and tax calculations.

Do not ask your husband to do the bookkeeping

Bookkeepers and accountants are not known for their sex appeal, but you need them anyhow. Monitor your business is only possible with a reliable bookkeeping system in place. You can outsource the hard work, but make sure you understand better than your bookkeeper where you make your money and how much! Find a good bookkeeper before you start selling hair in Nigeria.

Join a business community and build your network

It is always good to share your experience with others, join a business community and learn from others. This network can also be of great benefit in times of crisis.

Only borrow what you need

The business plan is the base for the loan or capital request, only borrow the money you need for the business activities. Protect yourself against excess cash, that you must repay later. Use the cash flow forecast in our all-in-one hair business package.

I hope this post will help Blessingfearless, but I will keep my eyes open for more financing possibilities. If you need money for your business or you want a low priced website, leave a comment below so I can help you to find the money,