In an exciting turn of events, Tech Herfrica was selected as one of the Six women’s economic development organizations for the Chat for Women’s Livelihood (CWL) Accelerator, led by Turn.io with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. https://www.turn.io/news/cwl-cohort-announcement.
Chosen from over 300 applications, the selected organizations are based in Pakistan, Nigeria, India, and Kenya. All six organizations work to enhance women’s economic skills, market access, income-generating opportunities, and access to services, and all have identified chat solutions as an important way to scale their services and accelerate their impact.
Guided by the team at Turn.io, the 18-month CWL Accelerator will see organizations learn how to leverage innovative chat technology, data analytics, community learning, AI, and large language models (LLMs). This will be used to design and develop an impactful chat service on WhatsApp that will scale and enhance learning, translating into direct livelihood income increases for women.
The final 2024 Chat for Women’s Livelihood (CWL) Accelerator cohort are Circle Women (Pakistan), Clafiya (Nigeria), Frontier Markets (India), Karya (India), Sauti (Kenya), and Tech HERfrica (Nigeria)
“We warmly welcome this exceptional cohort of six organizations,” said Pippa Yeats, Co-Founder of Turn.io. “We believe chat will play a pivotal role in the future of how these organizations will deliver impact. We look forward to an exciting journey ahead, where we can use chat to scale their initiatives, giving more women the skills and tools to increase their incomes.”
“We believe chat will play a pivotal role in the future of how these organizations will deliver impact. We look forward to an exciting journey ahead, where we can use chat to scale their initiatives, giving more women the skills and tools to increase their incomes.” Pippa Yeats, Co-Founder of Turn.io.
Tech Herfirca is actively working towards bridging the digital divide in Nigeria and this is a significant milestone in our journey of ensuring that rural women and girls have access to the knowledge, skills, and tools to improve their literacy, income, and overall well-being.
Tech HERfrica provides market access for rural farmers and traders to help them sell more of their products at the right prices, leading to an increase in income for the farmers, reduction in post-harvest waste, and provision of unadulterated food items to buyers at the best prices possible. The platform was created in a context where rural women, who play a significant role in Africa’s food production, are trapped in poverty cycles as they struggle to access new markets and sell their products at fair prices. HerLocal Market is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty for African women and girls in agriculture by leveraging electronic and social commerce and empowering women economically.
According to a statement released by the United Nations, e-commerce in Africa is expected to grow by 50% by 2025. However, all available data show that rural women, who produce a significant proportion of Africa’s food, are left behind due to social norms, high digital illiteracy, and a lack of access to affordable internet and smartphones. Unlike traditional e-commerce applications, due to the ease of using WhatsApp Tech HERfrica is able to train these women and onboard them into trading online. This significantly reduces the gender gap in online trade, especially for women in rural and underserved communities. Also, due to some social norms and rising insecurity in some parts of Nigeria, some women are unable to move freely without male figures or assistants who offer these women the opportunity to shop for their items from the comfort of their homes.