Women From Nigeria

"Since I left MBGN, my sister and I started a beauty business. We are rebranding so I cannot release the full details now. I also wrote an anthology, ‘Woman like the Sea’ it is about the struggles women go through. I also have a podcast titled 'Feminine Expressions' coming out soon"

"No, I do not think pageants are shallow. All pageants pass an important message through a beautiful person or face. It is always a combination of beauty and intellect"

"I am so grateful I got to be the first runner up and represent Nigeria in the Miss Universe contest. I met so many wonderful people there who I still talk to today. We even have a Whatsapp group. When someone gives birth or gets married, they post it on the group. I love it"

"It is encouraging, women should support women, our strength lies in our ability to give a helping hand to a sister in need. The best thing is helping others to achieve once you arrive at your destination. We go through so many similar difficulties and challenges that should make us want to work more together instead of fighting each other. A supportive circle of successful women will always thrive against all odds"

"Basically you are more than any situation you find yourself in, because you’re a human being; constantly becoming a better version of yourself"

"There were times in South Africa when I told someone that I was from Nigeria and their countenance will change. For the most part, I tried to surround myself with positive people and, I did have some friends"

"My older sister always keeps tabs on Nigerian news and celebrities. She wanted me to contest for the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria or Miss Nigeria, she later decided on MBGN. So she bought the form for me and filled it out for me"

"I was so surprised I made the top five and finally declared the first runner up. It is a game so you never know who is going to win"

"My parents inspire me to treat people selflessly. I am also inspired by hardworking and determined people, Mo Abudu from Nigeria is an African woman who is surpassing the limits set by society to conquer and pave the way for others to conquer, that is inspiring. When people achieve and help others get there, that inspires me"

"I had put my mind to doing the very best I could. I wanted to tick their boxes as much as I could. I knew I had to be articulate and smart, and I set my mind to do that"

"Yes, I am, though I do not like to subscribe to labels because sometimes we get hung up on the labels and forget the cause. Although, I am an advocate of women empowerment and gender equality"

"Even after the lockdown, I realized that you need friends and people you can count on"

"When I was younger, people would try to put my sister’s beauty against mine and say things like 'you wouldn't be pretty if you were dark-skinned' or tell my sister she would be prettier if she were light-skinned. We need to accept people the way we see them"

"Plus, dark skinned people are getting more representation is music videos and movies now and that is great"

"Because my family is in South Africa living in Lagos during the lockdown dealt with my mental health negatively. I always thought I was the sort of person who loves to be alone just in my corner writing how I feel but, the lockdown taught me that you need people around you"

"People always think I am biracial especially, in Lagos but, I am not. I cannot tell if there is light-skinned privilege. I know there is pretty privilege because people would want to talk to you if you are pretty"

"I think what is common nowadays is people trying to attach themselves to the light-skinned complexion by bleaching"

"This platform has given me the opportunity to help create awareness about endometriosis in Nigeria. It’s a disease that so many people don’t know about which affects the female child, so, I intend to go round, starting with secondary schools, to create awareness about endometriosis. I want young girls to know about this disease and try their best to get checked early enough. It is a disease that is fast spreading in Nigeria and it has to be checked; we can easily control it when everybody, especially young girls know about it."

"It has opened a lot of doors for me. I have met and rubbed shoulders with a lot of important people and world leaders, and not just in Nigeria but also across the world. I would always cherish those moments. I learnt that life is about meeting people, traveling, networking and building bridges so that we could have good and lasting relationships with people"

"I will advise every young girl who wants to go for MBGN, and whoever wins MBGN to just be herself. Be yourself; don’t try to be me or any other person. Don’t try to be any other person that went before you. Yes, these people can be your role models, but please be yourself and enjoy the moment. Be cool and don’t get carried away by what happens in our society nowadays. Just maintain your values"

"I have learnt to develop a thick skin. I am thankful for my family who has been my backbone and my fiends too who have been very supportive. So, you see negative things and you just laugh it off, because if people are not talking about you, then you are nobody; you are not relevant. You see negative reports and you just laugh and move on with your life"

"I have learnt to be a bit more patient and a bit more understanding. Before being queen, you were relating with people but you can’t compare it to you being queen of a big country like Nigeria, and everybody is looking up to you, to see the next move you make or your next mistake or that good thing you do. So, that is the difference. I have learnt to be more understanding and careful of things I say and do, because people like to misinterpret things. What you mean may not necessarily be what will be interpreted, so you have to be careful of what you say and things you do. You are relating with people and everybody is not going to be how you want them to be, so you need to be smart, you need to know how to work with people, because if you can work with people and you can build relationships and be more understanding and patient, you will go far"

"My ideal man, first of all, has to be God fearing. Everybody could say that is a cliché but it is really important. I have to be attracted to him though, its part of it. And you have to be a hard and smart worker. I don’t like lazy men; you have to be on your feet. You have to be loving and caring as well. I don’t care about height. He could be short or tall and I don’t care about age, but he must be attractive. However, what matters for me is what is inside"

"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is ugly to you may be handsome to me. I don’t think there is anything like dating an ugly man. He might be ugly to you but he is handsome to me. It is basically beauty from the inside; that is the most important thing. If your inside is as beautiful and amazing, what is on the outside is of no consequence, so it is your inside that matters"

"Overcoming the misconception that to be an impact fund you have to sacrifice returns for positive social impact remains to be one of the biggest challenges. Mainstreaming impact investing and integrating gender analysis and ESG as part of the investment process and not only reserving this for impact funds will be where we will need to get to as an industry as a whole globally."

"When you finally get them, it’s very, very fulfilling."

"You’re fundraising for one fund, you’re deploying another fund, you’re exiting another fund, you’re hiring, you’re reporting, you’re doing investor relations."

"Sometimes I feel there aren’t enough hours in the day."

"It takes time, it takes years of building trust, years of communication, years of follow-ups."

"We need to continue to showcase the success stories of impact investing where intentionality around impact actually enhances returns, this will be key in helping impact investing to become more mainstream."

"Sometimes I feel like I need three of me."

"We intentionally are looking to address the access to the capital gap for women in Africa as consumers and entrepreneurs as well as to reduce unemployment in our markets by providing growth capital to underfunded and overlooked companies."

"Fundraising is not for the faint-hearted. *Getting global institutions to back you, back your firm, back your vision, back your strategy."

"Generating strong financial returns whilst delivering positive and long-term social impact alongside tangible and measurable women empowerment outcomes. Enabling job creation for underrepresented groups as well as access to capital for overlooked underfunded women in Africa. We are deliberately integrating gender analysis into our investment analysis and decision-making."

"Access to capital for women and people of colour in my view is one of the most important dislocations in the private equity and venture capital industry that needs to be addressed in the next decade."

"It’s a business that we remain very, very excited about in terms of the growth trajectory."

"We think that if you’re able to provide affordable, high-quality healthcare services, like diagnostics, in peri-urban areas so outside the big cities you are really able to position yourself in an industry with limited competition."

"The unit economics of these centres are just phenomenal."

"You set up a centre and it breaks even in a short space of time."

"The way that they’ve been able to create this ecosystem that is really enabling the informal economy to really scale and have access to finance."

"There is a huge gap between intention to do impact investing, and the actual action. So I am hoping that this gap closes in the coming decade and that we have institutions putting money where their mouth is in terms of addressing racial inequities as well as unconscious biases women face."

"Dreaming up bold ideas, asking hard questions, or looking to create meaningful impact, I’m here for it."

"I don’t just build platforms. I build people, programs, and belonging."

"I am on a mission to help people and brands own their voices, show their spark, and lead with purpose."

"Creating a website or app that solves actual human problems is a big deal, and nothing would give me more joy if I'm able to do just that."

"I have always been fascinated about creating things and most importantly solve problems."

"I didn’t find it strange to be in Kano because at that time, my father was there when I was in secondary school. It was a boarding school and I was not staying with them at home, but at least they were available."

"We were fortunate because the late Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Usman Nagwaggo, was interested in the education of the girl-child. His children and sisters went to school. The children of titleholders in the emirate also went to school. So it was not very difficult. And the then Katsina Native Authority was very supportive."

"My preferred subject was Mathematics ... I was given admission, but somehow, my family ... decided that I should read Medicine. At that time there were no female medical doctors, so all I needed was to apply to read Medicine. They gave me the offer and that was how I ended up in the profession."

"At first, when we went in they said I didn’t look like a medical student, so they thought I was being pushed or favoured because I am from a Hausa-Fulani area. They started following me up until they started seeing our results and they gave up."