Founder of the African Women Power Network (AWP), Mary Olushoga has created a platform for small business owners and entrepreneurs to gain insight and skills to bolster their Africa-based ventures. Working with women and girls, AWP also puts a focus on youth support. Olushoga recently visited AFKInsider‘s studio for an interview where she discussed further the importance of nurturing women, girls and youth, getting government support for business start-ups, as well as visiting Africa to propose effective solutions to the continent’s problems.

“I think to be a “real” entrepreneur you have to start on your own and it has to be something that you kind of finance, whether that be through bootstrapping, or you go to a bank versus the government giving you money,” Olushoga said in the second part of the interview. “In Nigeria specifically, the government unfortunately controls many things. One of the ways to effect change would be to work [through] a public-private partnership to create policies that can really transform the entrepreneurial environment.”