Ethiopia: Nigest Haile, an activist committed to the promotion of women entrepreneurs

Nigest Hailé has been committed to the empowerment of Ethiopian women for over four decades. After 23 years in the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Ethiopia, she founded the NGO CAWEE in 2004 to promote the economic development of Ethiopian women. She also co-founded Enat Bank, the first bank dedicated exclusively to financing women in Ethiopia.

In a career spanning more than forty years, Nigest Hailé has dedicated herself to the promotion of women’s financial empowerment, whether in government, where she has worked for more than two decades, or through the NGO she founded, or Enat Bank, of which she is a founding member.

She began her professional career as a gender expert in the Ethiopian Ministry of Industry and Trade, which she joined in 1980 after graduating with a degree in psychology and sociology. Within a few years, she rose through the ranks to become the Director of the Department of Women’s Affairs in the Ministry. Her mission being to advise the government on legislation and actions to be taken to create an enabling environment for women’s economic development in Ethiopia. Among other initiatives she launched in favour of women, the establishment of microfinance mechanisms for Ethiopian women.

During her tenure, she completed a number of government-funded training and certification courses, including a master’s degree in globalisation and development at the International Institute of Social Sciences in the Netherlands, and a diploma in policies and strategies for the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin, Italy.

Supporting Ethiopian women exporters

After two decades in the public sector, she decided to leave her job to contribute in an innovative way to women’s economic development. Having noticed a lack of institutions in charge of supporting women running Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially in the field of export, she founded the Centre for Accelerated Women Empowerment in Ethiopia (CAWEE) in 2004.  Her vision is, in particular, to create a real value chain where women exporters can find qualified suppliers and employ trained women. The NGO supports women entrepreneurs in five main sectors, namely food processing, textiles, jewellery, services and hospitality. It provides training to women exporters, notably on international trade, basic and business skills. In addition, it provides business development services, facilitates access to finance and organises trade missions and trade fairs. It also conducts targeted research.

Faced with the lack of financing faced by Ethiopian women entrepreneurs, in 2008 she and a dozen other women created Enat Bank, a commercial bank run and operated by women whose vocation is to finance women. A first in the world. The bank provides general services and offers specific mechanisms for women. An initiative that has inspired other banks in the country to set up provisions for women.

In addition to her commitment to Ethiopian women, Nigest Hailé is also committed to African women. She founded the African Women Entrepreneurs Program (AWEP) in 2012.