Startup Story
Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti is the founder of Ife is the founder of Herconomy (formerly AGS Tribe), a community she developed driven by her own experience. Herconomy is a community for empowered women combined with a financial platform with a mission to empower women through Financial Services, Capacity Building, Jobs and Networking. She is also an Author, Entrepreneur and young global leader with over 10 years of management and leadership experience working in the fashion, marketing and manufacturing industries. Ife holds a first degree in Biochemistry and an MBA in Global Business. Her business has created jobs for 30 people.
LoA spoke to Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti about her entrepreneur journey and her vision for the future of her business.
What does your company do?
Herconomy is a female-focused fintech and community that is building the future of banking for women while also democratizing capacity-building opportunities for them. We help women to save and earn high interest, get discounts from our partner stores, connect, and access unique economic opportunities, including jobs, grants, scholarships, and investments.
What inspired you to start your company?
I was inspired to solve the problem of financial inclusion for women after seeing women I loved going through untold hardship because they weren’t both financially literate and independent. My mum is a lawyer by profession. As soon as she started having children, she put her career on the back burner and focused on looking after her family. When we were old enough, and she wanted to start a business, she realized that she had no savings and couldn’t make any meaningful financial contribution. This situation is not peculiar to my mum. It is typical for most African women. According to the IMF, only 37% of women in sub-Saharan Africa have bank accounts, and almost none have savings. Unfortunately, economic benefits are not reaching Nigeria’s women. They are 25% less likely than men to participate in the labour force, and when they get hired, they get paid only 75% of what men get paid for the same positions. Women are losing out on opportunities because they lack access to resources that will help to build their capacity, earn more, or make sound investments.
If you also drill this down to Nigeria, you will see a huge gap. Nigeria has the highest number of unbanked people in the world. Currently, over 118 million Nigerians are unbanked, with 55.9% of them female. In Nigeria alone, there are an estimated 64 Million women without bank accounts and many more who would happily switch to our targeted accounts which provide them with additional income.
We are on a mission to ensure every woman has access to grow their money, build their capacity, and grow their network, thereby becoming more empowered and able to contribute to the economic growth of their countries.
“We are on a mission to empower women in Nigeria and beyond to be financially independent, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of their ecosystem.”
“We help women to save and earn high interest, get discounts from our partner stores, connect, and access unique economic opportunities, including jobs, grants, scholarships, and investments.”
Why should anyone use your service or product?
With the viral "Me Too" movement and women empowerment activities going on worldwide, we have seen many financial platforms rush to create female-focused products without thinking about what women want or need. Before we created Herconomy, we ran AGS Tribe for about three years which gave us in-depth insight into what women needed, especially when it came to accessing financial services and capacity building. AGS Tribe was the largest community of female professionals across Nigeria. With the insight received, we decided to build the future of Banking for Women across Africa, which not only catered to financial services but also capacity building and networking.
Our product is currently the only product in Nigeria that offers women special bank accounts, which give them access to 10% interest per annum on their savings and also enable them to save up to 30% when they purchase products or services from any of our partners. From hotels to restaurants, to pharmacies, to schools, we have a plethora of local and international brands from which women can benefit. Our vision is; to empower 1 million women by 2025 to access financial services. We are on a mission to empower women in Nigeria and beyond to be financially independent, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of their ecosystem.
Tell us a little about your team
We have a team of solid professionals with a combined experience of over 40 years in founding Startups, Software Development, Project Management, Operations Management, Content Creation, Human Resources and Data Analytics. We have a strong tech team made up of professionals with diverse experiences.
Our CTO is a dynamic leader of software development teams offering over 17 years of rich industry experience with IT majors managing multi-million dollar, mission-critical projects.
Our Lead Developer has almost a decade of Software Engineering experience across various telecommunication companies and recently with Imaginarium Global, where he served as the Chief Technical Officer. He also built 2 Fintech products before joining Herconomy.
Our finance team is very experienced. Our CFO is a C-Suite Management Executive with extensive expertise in; Finance and Business Strategy. Her 17 years of career exposure across roles and projects in financial technology, financial services, social entrepreneurship, coaching, agricultural value chain, entrepreneurship and women empowerment has expanded her skill set, uniquely positioning her for industry versatility and leadership.
Our Finance Manager is an alumnus of Deloitte Nigeria, where she worked as a Financial Consultant. She also has experience with one of the big commercial banks in Nigeria, where she served in the Treasury Division.
We have a great Operations team. Our COO has more than 10 years of experience and has previously worked with various organizations: with the latest two being Guaranty Trust Bank and Serengeti, an Ad tech company that is a part of the Insight Communication Group.
Our People Operations Manager has over 7 years of career experience leading people and company culture, driving automation in people processes and proactively leading initiatives for maintaining best practices.
My name is Ife. I am the CEO and renowned for my youth empowerment efforts. That has led to me working with the World Bank, and I was nominated as a Peace Scholar by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have also won several awards for my effort in supporting women all across Africa.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I do not come from an entrepreneurial background, but I am always poised to solve problems I see in the marketplace, thereby creating economic opportunities. In 2015, I noticed a gap in the market of furniture for newborn kids and set out alongside my partner Olamide Olatunbosun to set up Parliamo Bambini, a pioneer kids' furniture outfit. We also set up Philos and Zoe, a contemporary clothing company for children. Both companies provided an alternative solution to the importation of children's products by providing locally manufactured furniture and clothing. In 2018 I launched, Accessing Grants for Startups (AGS Tribe) which we ran for three years. It became the largest community of female professionals across Nigeria. With the insight received running AGS Tribe, we built Herconomy, the future of Banking for Women across Africa.
“My greatest satisfaction as an entrepreneur is seeing the African woman economically empowered and able to contribute to the growth of her eco-system.”
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Grow our active savers from 100,000.
Grow the asset under our management to a value of $1,000,000.
Grow our number of trainees to 200,000.
Launch our marketplace.
Increase the number of our affinity partners to 1,000 by 2025.
Empower 1 million women by 2025.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
My greatest satisfaction as an entrepreneur is seeing the African woman economically empowered and able to contribute to the growth of her eco-system.
According to a report by Mckinsey Global Institute titled “The power of parity, advancing women’s equality in Africa,” progress towards gender equality has stalled, and Africa’s women lag behind their sisters in most other regions in most areas of their lives. They, therefore, advised that the time has come to step up efforts to bring women into Africa’s promising future; otherwise, Africa will not reach its full potential. The report says that; in a “full potential” scenario in which women and men play similar roles in labour markets, Africa could potentially add $1 trillion or 34% to its collective GDP in the period to 2025, and $316 billion could be added to Africa’s GDP in 2025 if all countries matched the progress towards gender equality of their best performing neighbor. That is why at Herconomy, we are deliberate about empowering women in existing and emerging industries.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Dear Sis, Go for it! There is no better time to start than now.
Research has proven that when women are given a seat at the table, better decisions are made: in all aspects of society. Take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example. The countries led by women performed better than those led by men.
You need to know that you can be all you want to be, and if any woman has ever achieved her dreams, you too can. You are the next big thing waiting to happen!
Find out more
Email: ife@herconomy.com
Website: https://herconomy.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Herconomy
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herconomy/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Herconomy
Why LoA loves it…
At Lionesses of Africa we believe that if you want the African continent to fulfill its potential, then you have to help women to also fulfill their potential. Women entrepreneurs are drivers of economic growth and prosperity in their community, so it stands to reason that if you want communities and people to thrive, then we need more women entrepreneurs to grow too. Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti believes that women’s economic empowerment starts with access to financial independence, and her business is helping women to achieve that goal at the heart of their communities. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa