Shecluded: A Gender-based Fintech That Keeps On Giving
The United Nations maintains that gender equality and women empowerment is necessary to achieve sustainable development all over the world. Women-owned businesses are essential to the growth of developing economies like Nigeria. However, only 1 in 3 businesses are owned by women globally, based on information from the World Bank Gender Data Portal.
Most female-led businesses are micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). In 2020, Crunchbase reported that funding that went to women-led startups fell to 2.3% however, the World Bank revealed that between 2014 and 2018, newly “registered firms are 17% more likely to have a female owner” in Nigeria. Access to financial services is one of the greatest challenges women face compared to their male counterparts in the populous country.
A Consultant with the World Bank, Daniel Halim stated that,
As a credit service company, Shecluded has been able to provide loans to thousands of women from its community of 16000+ female entrepreneurs, delivering financial education, free resources, and many more opportunities.

After persistent encouragement from her mentor, Ifeoma applied for the Spring 2021 Milestone Maker cohort at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Centre in San Francisco, USA, and got accepted into the program.
She recently graduated and earned a feature on the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square, New York.

Speaking to Benjamin Dada on the program, Ifeoma Uddoh said,
Through consistency and grit, Shecluded plans to change the lives of a lot of women with the end goal of ensuring more female-led MSMEs grow to large organisations in the future. Users can visit www.shecluded.com for more information on the platform.