The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, an initiative by the UK Government to support the growth of the Nigerian tech ecosystem has collaborated with tech giant company Google to support female-led startup founders.
Through this collaboration, the sum of $3 million in Google Cloud credits will be awarded to women founders in Nigeria, subsidizing cloud technology expenses for their startups, and enabling them to focus on innovation, customer acquisition, and growth.
Speaking on the collaboration, the British High Commission Senior Press & Public Affairs Officer Ndidiamaka Eze said,
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“This support will subsidize cloud technology-related costs for startups, allowing them to focus on innovation, customer acquisition, and growth. The joint effort by the UK-Nigeria tech hub and Google for startups in Africa will help to promote digital inclusion and jointly support technology businesses run by women founders.
“To commemorate International women’s day in March, the two organizations co-hosted an event in Lagos, bringing together women founders, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders. The event aims to help women founders understand the technology funding landscape and position themselves to secure funding for startups.
“This partnership is a testament to our commitment to supporting women founders and helping them reach their full potential. Partnerships like this are one of the great ways that stakeholders can come together to advance Nigeria’s tech ecosystem at an accelerated pace”.
Lately, Women startup founders have been getting much-needed recognition as well as increased funding. Recall that earlier this month, Google announced 15 women-founded startups in its inaugural accelerator. The selected women founders will receive business and technical training alongside mentoring and investment networking opportunities, tying into Google’s long-standing strategy to empower Africa’s women in business.
The 15 selected startups were pulled from eight African countries and are leveraging innovation and technology to develop solutions that are impacting lives and communities. Google’s program is coming at the back of its consistent effort to achieve gender parity in the funds it deploys into African startups.
Also, ALAT by Wema a youth-focused startup competition aimed to provide a platform that enables innovators and startup founders with tech-driven skills, in its latest edition of its 2023 Hackaholics 4.0, tagged “reimagine” has disclosed that as a way of honoring its commitment to inclusivity, women-led teams will be given recognition and rewards.
It is also interesting to note that against the backdrop of a funding boom for African startups, women-led startups which have been long starved of funds, have seen a dramatic increase in financing. Investments made into African female-led startups have grown by nearly seven-fold over the last three years, highlighting their potential to haul in investment.
In 2021, the share of investments that went to female-owned tech start-ups stood at about 6.5 percent, which implies that just 1 in every 15 dollars raised in the African start-up ecosystem went to women-owned tech startups. Though incredibly low, it was much higher in 2021 than in previous years.
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