Financial education supports migrants and entrepreneurs in Nigeria
With close to 20 years of coaching entrepreneurs under her belt Omokorede Fasoro is a shining light in Nigeria’s efforts to support migrants and returnees by helping them to improve their money management skills, build sustainable businesses and improve employment prospects through financial education. She is an ILO financial education trainer who is very passionate about the topic. In this article, we share her innovative outreach strategies using digital technology to promote financial literacy.
Omokorede has been involved with the ILO for over a decade, most recently supporting the financial education training for employment resource centers and financial institutions in Ghana and Nigeria. This is part of an ILO initiative that aims to enhance employment and income generating opportunities of potential and return migrants.
She firmly believes that providing migrants and returnees with personal finance skills sets them up for success in work, in business and in life. She promotes the provision of financial education in conjunction with other entrepreneurial training offered by the ILO, including Start and Improve Your Business and Gender and Enterprise Together (GetAhead), for even greater impact. Her involvement with migrants and returnees began in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic put in-person training sessions on hold. She innovated and took her coaching of trainers and beneficiaries online using various platforms, including Zoom, Whatsapp and emails.
In 2022, under another ILO project aimed at strengthening the capacities of local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to produce high-quality personal protective equipment and healthcare-related products, she was tasked with training the entrepreneurs in financial education. The training exposed them to the right financial tools and skills to access the needed finance for their businesses.
Omokorede achieved this by directing her trainees to the ILO's financial education e-learning course and she scheduled weekly video coaching sessions via Zoom to ensure their understanding. She then used WhatsApp to disseminate practical information, logistics and to address any questions they might have. This regular engagement with trainees helped to mitigate the data consumption and network concerns of her students.
At the end of the training and coaching sessions, many participants gave positive feedback about the impact of the training on their lives and businesses. As one said: “I feel accomplished with this knowledge and I have been able to teach my workers and family the same.” Another participant noted that, since taking the training, he has started to carefully track his expenditure and income which has been helpful in his business. Another satisfied participant noted: “I can improve in my business. I now know how to keep records and save our money wisely.”
She firmly believes that providing migrants and returnees with personal finance skills sets them up for success in work, in business and in life. She promotes the provision of financial education in conjunction with other entrepreneurial training offered by the ILO, including Start and Improve Your Business and Gender and Enterprise Together (GetAhead), for even greater impact. Her involvement with migrants and returnees began in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic put in-person training sessions on hold. She innovated and took her coaching of trainers and beneficiaries online using various platforms, including Zoom, Whatsapp and emails.
In 2022, under another ILO project aimed at strengthening the capacities of local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to produce high-quality personal protective equipment and healthcare-related products, she was tasked with training the entrepreneurs in financial education. The training exposed them to the right financial tools and skills to access the needed finance for their businesses.
Omokorede achieved this by directing her trainees to the ILO's financial education e-learning course and she scheduled weekly video coaching sessions via Zoom to ensure their understanding. She then used WhatsApp to disseminate practical information, logistics and to address any questions they might have. This regular engagement with trainees helped to mitigate the data consumption and network concerns of her students.
At the end of the training and coaching sessions, many participants gave positive feedback about the impact of the training on their lives and businesses. As one said: “I feel accomplished with this knowledge and I have been able to teach my workers and family the same.” Another participant noted that, since taking the training, he has started to carefully track his expenditure and income which has been helpful in his business. Another satisfied participant noted: “I can improve in my business. I now know how to keep records and save our money wisely.”