Keep Moving

My name is Adenike Odunuga and I am 60 years old. I don't look it though. My small stature attracts comments like you look 28, 38 etc. I have a quest for learning which started at age 4 running after my older Sister to school and as such starting primary before the official age of six.

I was born in a town called Odogbolu in the present Odogbolu local government area of Ogun State Nigeria. I can remember an enjoyable and sometimes not too enjoyable childhood as I lived with a pampering grandmother and discipline oriented mother. I appreciate both.

They were dedicated to education and saw me through first degree while I went on second degree with the help of my older Brother and older Sister who is now late.

I grew up seeing my parents (Mum and grandma) giving food to students who were boadered around us in private residences taking from their modest means.

Having studied Agriculture and Agricultural Economics, I am very passionate about food security and have developed some initiatives including an NGO, a consultancy, training on Agriculture and Agric Business and presently running a farm.

My current focus are the training and farm.

I will encourage women to keep developing their skills and if able, continue educating themselves formally. I have in addition to my Msc done a Post graduate Diploma, and many other courses to increase my skills set and be more relevant to society. I am passionate about helping the youth to be employable and to start businesses.

These achievements were not easy. I got widowed in 2012 but this though gave me a temporary setback, I refused to give up on my goals to become a leader in the development space. I started an online PhD course last year to further help my understanding of how to help businesses grow. I am committed to helping women across Africa and maybe those in other countries.

I am presently the CEO of Agriculture and Agro-Allied School Of Business and I also run a meeting for women in my community to help their faith growth, personal development and business development.

Africa needs to grow businesses that would last beyond 2,3 to 5 years. My present study relates to how to build such resilience and get necessary support from stakeholders on this.

Women are very crucial to the development of Africa. They have the quest but need some vital support in policies, funding, training, cultural reorientation and other empowerment in appropriate quality and quantity. With little, women are already doing much, carrying the burdens of reproduction, small scale production, processing and marketing. I hail African women for surviving through much hardships and I hail women worldwide. My advice: keep going despite the limitations.

Happy to connect to world purse and will hopefully be bringing more stories from me and the women who can not work on this by themselves.