African businesses need to enter the electronic age. With USAID funding, IBI helped woman-owned small businesses change from oral to electronic record-keeping communications. This changes helped shift activities from uniquely local to regional and global. 195 businesswomen, most unfamiliar with a keyboard, were trained to use email for business and to search the web for suppliers, comparative pricing, and research on the competition in their field. Eighteen learned to use teleconferencing. Women learned the implications for their businesses of local business law, ECOWAS' movement towards customs union, and AGOA, as well as how to register an organization, create by-laws, open bank accounts, transfer money across national boundaries without hand carrying it, render transparent auditable accounts, and judge which banks to approach to obtain credit. Business linkage events co-sponsored with the Corporate Council on Africa brought nearly 150 women in touch with customers and suppliers and taught them how to study distant markets taste preferences, packaging and labeling, and export/import requirements.

Back to Results