Alakija, Okoli urge women to create value, make impact

Businesswoman and philanthropist, Apostle Folorunso Alakija, has urged Nigerian women to move beyond having a voice to leading the transformation of society.

Alakija, who spoke as the keynote speaker at the 10th Voice of Women Conference and Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, said women must ensure that their voices translate into solutions and engender lasting change.

Alakija said, “A voice by itself is only potential. A voice may carry an idea; your voice may carry a solution; your voice may carry a business; your voice may carry wisdom that can change a young woman’s life. But if that voice remains inside you, the impact remains trapped.”

She argued that finding one’s voice was only the beginning, adding that women needed capacity to make meaningful use of opportunities.

“God can open a door, but we must develop the capacity to walk through it and be effective once we enter,” she said.

Alakija, who recalled her journey from office administration and banking into fashion, oil and gas, philanthropy and leadership, said women must progress from capacity to influence and ultimately to impact.

“Visibility is not the same as influence. You can be seen and still be insignificant. You can be popular and still not add value. You can have a title and still not be a leader. True influence comes when your presence makes a difference,” she said.

She urged women to use their success to address social problems, mentor younger women and provide solutions to communities, stressing that Nigeria needed women who would accept responsibility for the impact of their leadership.

“Nigeria doesn’t need successful women alone. It needs women who will use their success to solve problems,” Alakija said.

She added, “The question is no longer ‘What have we achieved?’ The question is, ‘What will remain because we were here?’”

Also speaking at the event, founder of Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries, Dr Stella Okoli, said women could use their voices to build businesses and industries that would contribute to national development.

Okoli, who spoke on “Voice to Value: Building Enterprise Industrial Enterprise that Empowers and Includes Nigeria,” said her life had been a journey “from vision to enterprise, from enterprise to value, from value to nation-building.”

She said, “If there is one message I want to leave with you today, it is that a voice becomes truly powerful when it creates value.”

According to her, a voice that builds a business, employs people, creates industries, solves national problems and leaves something for the next generation becomes “a force of transformation.”

Okoli, who founded Emzor in 1985 after starting a retail pharmacy business, recalled that she obtained a N6,000 loan from FirstBank to begin local production of Emzor Paracetamol.

She urged young women not to wait until they had everything before starting their businesses.

“You do not need to begin with everything, but you need to begin with something,” she said.

“Your first office may be a room, your first employee may be one person, and your first product may only be one product. But do not allow yourself to remain there.”

The pharmacist also urged the government to support local pharmaceutical manufacturers and young entrepreneurs, saying Nigeria should develop the capacity to produce the raw materials needed for medicines.

Earlier, founder of the Voice of Women Empowerment Foundation and Executive Director of Women Radio WFM 91.7, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, in her welcome address, said the platform had moved from providing women with a space to speak to creating opportunities for their voices to produce tangible results.

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Sonaiya said, “We have learned that voice is only the beginning, and real change happens when the voice becomes influence, when ideas become action, and when our action transforms lives.”

She said women now needed more than a platform, noting that they required “opportunity, real access, resources, representation, and the power to turn their own voice into impact.”

The founder said the conference had, over the past decade, evolved from discussions around economic empowerment, finance, agriculture and technology to issues including gender-based violence, governance and inclusion.

She also called for grassroots women living with disabilities to be represented in decision-making spaces.

“Women do not need to be spoken for. Women need to be heard and be empowered to shape solutions,” she said.

Sonaiya also used the occasion to draw attention to the story of Oluwatobi Raji, a survivor of trauma, rape, drug abuse, homelessness and teenage marriage who now educates more than 150 out-of-school children in Mowo, Ogun State.

She appealed for support to enable Raji to secure a permanent facility for the children.

“I am hoping that someone in this room has the resources, the connections, and the heart to say, ‘I will help Oluwatobi Raji build a permanent school for these children,’” she said.

Former First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, urged women to raise daughters who would dream and aspire while raising sons who would respect women and understand responsibility.

Fayemi said women should not continue to participate in systems that undermine them, declaring, “Women have suffered enough. Girls are going through too much already. Women, we should stop investing in our own oppression.”

She also urged women to demand dignity, mutual respect, confidence and responsibility in relationships and to support other women rather than undermine them.

The Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, called on women to support and mentor one another, saying their progress should create opportunities for others.

“As we rise, lift as you rise. It is very important so that as one goes, we do not go alone,” she said.

Salako-Oyedele, who recalled her relationship with Sonaiya since she became deputy governor in 2019, said Women Radio had created a platform for women to bring their experiences and aspirations into public conversations.

She said more still needed to be done in areas including economic opportunity, healthcare, education and women’s participation in governance.

Veteran broadcaster, Bimbo Oloyede, who recalled Sonaiya’s early efforts to establish a radio platform for women, urged the organisers to take the Voice of Women Conference beyond Nigeria.

Speaking, FirstBank Chief Executive Officer, Segun Alebiosu, represented by Helen Willie, said women’s voices needed to be backed by access to finance, business knowledge, technology, markets and networks.

He noted that women-owned businesses required support at different stages of growth, including assistance with record-keeping, cash flow, pricing, governance and access to larger markets.

“Voice is not enough. For women’s voices to create sustainable impact, they must be supported with access to finance, business knowledge, technology, markets, and strong networks,” he said.