New mobile app to lift women

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and DHL Express have launched a new mobile application to impart women with business skills in Kenya. 

The two entities unveiled HerVenture at a virtual launch in Nairobi yesterday attended by Cabinet Secretary for the Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Professor Margret Kobia (pictured).

The mobile app will be used as an avenue to help women entrepreneurs in Kenya and globally to digitise their businesses and position them to thrive in the new digital world during the pandemic. 

Kenya is the second African country after Nigeria to benefit from the app following a needs assessment conducted last year.

"The Covid-19 is drastically changing the way we live and work and pushing us further into a digital world. To survive, many businesses across the world find that they too must move online. In emerging economies, mobile technology is proving to be a lifeline for small businesses, but not everyone is ready to embrace the new digital reality," said Cherie Blair, founder of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

"GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020 shows that women are still less likely to have the access or skills to use it to adapt their business, but if they don’t access support now, they face losing their businesses altogether, which stands to have severe knock-on impacts on families, communities and economies." 

The app comes with a new e-commerce learning track to support users with business digitisation and aims to reach 10,000 women entrepreneurs in the country.

The app’s content is provided in bite-sized, easy-to-understand formats such as swipe-able cards and videos.