New mobile app launched to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses

Sep 19, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – A new mobile app was launched last Tuesday to help women entrepreneurs in Guyana grow their businesses.

The HerVenture app, which is the brainchild of the UK-based Cherie Blair Foundation, is expected to help in excess of 3,000 female entrepreneurs across the length and breadth of Guyana by offering them vital business tips, tools for business growth, support and networking opportunities.
The app is free and easy to download using a QR and scanner and is currently available at the App Store, at HerVenture Guyana, and via the ActionInvest Caribbean website.
Once downloaded, there is no need for internet access to get the information on the app. This makes it easier for women in remote and underserved locations to utilise the services offered.
The Cherie Blair Foundation has successfully brought essential business skills, training to over 41,000 women across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia via the award-winning app.
This week, the Foundation teamed up with ActionInvest Caribbean—a local business development company, to introduce the same easy-to-use service to virtually every female entrepreneur in Guyana.

During the official launch of the mobile app, which was held at the British High Commission residence at Bel Air Gardens, Georgetown, on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Cherie Blair Foundation, Helen McEachern, who joined via Zoom, spoke of the business development prospects that the app offers.
She noted that the mobile app is fun and flexible and offers business training on the go with sessions between five to seven minutes. It also teaches users to manage business records, access financing and digital marketing and e-commerce.
In fact, McEachern said, “Our evaluations have shown that women do love the app… It has been a vital resource for women in those countries throughout the pandemic it has allowed them to get access to skills to transform their business.” She explained that the app exists because of women entrepreneurs.
Research shows that women are more likely to invest in their families and communities and their businesses are also more likely to provide more service and opportunities. McEachern said the foundation has been working with ExxonMobil since 2015 to raise funds to empower women who were able to sustain and grow their business in several countries with the HerVenture app.
As it relates to Guyana, McEachern said, “We believe this is an environment that is right for initiatives like the HerVenture app and are thrilled to bring it to Guyana.”
In her remarks, CEO of ActionInvest Caribbean, Davitri Doerga, shared with audience the story of her personal growth as a businesswoman.
Doerga noted that it was through partnership and business education that she is where she is today, one of Guyana’s successful businesswomen for over 20 years now.
“Our goal is to provide on the ground implementation for the Foundation’s women’s mobile learning app and to provide at least 3,000 women entrepreneurs of micro and small businesses with the knowledge and skills to successfully grow their businesses,” Doerga explained.

Meanwhile, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, lauded the partnership as she noted that it represents a meaningful opportunity for women entrepreneurs across the country.
The initiative, she said, complement several women empowerment and development initiatives that her ministry has, particularly the recently launched Women Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN).
The WIIN launched its own app, and opened a new business incubator last month. Minister Persaud noted that the app would help to build on certain aspects of the WIIN programme, such as helping the female entrepreneurs complete their business proposals.
“Once they have their business proposal, this app in their hand gives them the power to transform their business proposal into a reality, and ensure that they not only commence their business, but sustain it in the future,” she said.
In addition to launching the service in Guyana this week, the HerVenture app won the Digital Innovation of the Year Award at the UK’s Third Sector Awards.
According information posted on the Cherie Blair Foundation website, the judges of the award ceremony praised HerVenture as “solving a clear problem with a clever solution – it is a great concept, delivered to those that need it most.”
According to the Foundation, since “COVID-19 has drastically changed the way women entrepreneurs everywhere live and work, making them more reliant on the digital world. We are delighted to receive this important recognition for the innovative and incredibly valuable support that HerVenture has offered women entrepreneurs since the pandemic’s onslaught.”
“We undertook urgent research at the start of the pandemic that highlighted two critical learning needs to help women’s businesses survive: e-commerce and digital marketing. Due to national and regional lockdowns and women’s increased domestic burdens, we recognised that these needs had to be met digitally and quickly.
And so we rapidly developed new and easily-digestible learning tracks on these topics through HerVenture, as well as making the app—previously only available on Android—available over iOS to increase its availability,” the Foundation added in the release.

 

 

 

 

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