Ayodele Magret O’s entrepreneurial journey has been about learning — learning how to manage her finances as a small business owner, learning how to network and build her business’ reputation in the community, and giving her three children a chance to learn as much as they can in school.
Ayodele started her bookshop in Lagos with just a few books, and she has gradually built it into a thriving bookstore. Along the way, she’s taken out loans from Accion Microfinance Bank to acquire new inventory and manage income flows.
Accion Microfinance Bank is a leading provider of financial services to microentrepreneurs like Ayodele in Nigeria. Accion was a founding investor and provided the initial management for the bank. Today, we continue to support the bank with a digital transformation strategy to reach more customers with the financial tools they need. Nearly 7 in 10 of the bank’s customers are women. Having access to financial services empowers women to be more autonomous — better able to control their personal finances, support their families, and remain resilient.
For Ayodele, the financial support that helped her grow her business also helped her fund her children’s educations. From her oldest son who’s at university in Canada to her youngest daughter who’s just beginning her journey at a private primary school, Ayodele’s children are making their mother proud.
Ayodele’s next plan for her family is to build a house. That way, no matter how far her kids go in life, they’ll always have a place they can call home with the mother who made it all possible.
