Selection Nigeria
Mamamoni
Mamamoni is a Fintech Social Enterprise that offers financial solutions for women. We offer financial services to address the needs of underserved women in Nigeria, such as agency banking, third-party money transfer, and bills payment. In consortium with VFD, a leading Microfinance institution based in Lagos, we are introducing the Mamamoni Female Agent Network. Together, we are passionate about empowering and investing in young girls and women from rural and urban slum communities.
The Problem
Finding effective solutions and addressing the pressing issue of underemployment and unemployment in Nigeria is significant. As Nigeria faces a general unemployment rate of 33,3%, with heightened unemployment levels among youth, that is at a rate of 53%. Young people are likely to face a lot of difficulties if they want to secure full time, decent employment. (Young) women in Nigeria face higher rates of unemployment and underemployment because of early family formations and low enrolment in schools. In rural areas there is more underemployment, with many workers relying on seasonal work, nevertheless, there is more unemployment in urban areas.
Even though women are disproportionally affected by unemployment and underemployment, especially in rural or urban slum communities, they are often expected to be the breadwinners of the family because often times their partners lack the economic resources to take care of the family.
These challenges also create opportunities, with the Mamamoni Female Agent Network we want to offer a solution to this problem by offering young women flexible, decent training and employment so they can work anywhere in the country.
The Solution
With our project, the Mamamoni Female Agent Network, we want to help close the (youth) employment gap in Nigeria by offering decent work and a stable income to youth. Simultaneously, we want to promote equality, a safe work environment and personal development.
We will do this by creating a new business, as a source of livelihood, that will offer employment opportunities for around 2000 young girls and women from the ages of 18 to 35. These young women will be trained in digital skills, financial transactions and will also be given financial literacy training. This training will help them become community banking agents, being able to work everywhere in the country. Also, they will undertake our community agent training process, which makes them industry-competitive agents for Mamamoni. After this training, they will earn money through commissions and fees on any action done on their point-of-sales devices. Additionally, the training will offer them sufficient skills to find employment elsewhere, making it a tool for long-term employment for young women.
The Mamamoni Female Agent Network will enable young women, both those who are able and those who are living with disabilities, to access better opportunities by becoming employed through our network.
Additionality
It is likely that with CFYE support, the project will be better designed, proceed more quickly, or reach more young people than it otherwise would have
The grant by CFYE will allow us to execute our project and will provide the critical funds that will enable us to subsidize new POS. Besides, the support will help us substantially scale up our Mamamoni female agent network.
CFYE’s technical assistance will help us with strategic resource deployment, so we can prioritise key regions for expansion of our future agent activities.
