I met Mrs Busayo Obisakin at the Murtala International Airport in October 2016 while we were on our way to participate at the first ever Africa Summit for Women and Girls in Technology (#techWomenAfrica) organized by the Web Foundation. Her work with helping women discover themselves, giving them skills training and developing them to be financially dependent is very inspiring.

We met again at the second edition of the #TechWomenAfrica summit in Accra in October 2018 where she gisted me about the tremendous progress so far and the funding challenges the Centre was experiencing.

She invited me to visit the Ile-Ife-based Centre to interview some of the beneficiaries and to tell the Centre’s story. `Hence my visit to Ile-Ife in December 2018 to curate these beautiful moments. I interviewed some of the beneficiaries and had a one-on-one with Mrs Obisakin. Please visit bit.ly/widcgive to support the Women Inspiration Development Centre’s work and help them reach more women.

BUSAYO OBISAKIN is the founder and CEO of Women Inspiration Development Center (WIDC), established in the year 2010, an NGO that champions the initiative to work with women and girls. It is also a safe haven for Nigerian women and girls facing challenging life circumstances. WIDC envisions and creates new possibilities for them, their families and community within Ile-Ife, in Osun, Nigeria. At the Centre, women are empowered to discover themselves, learn a skill, make a living and be financially independent. The workshop is 100% free!

In this interview, Mrs Obisakin shares what inspired her to pursue her childhood dream of empowering women towards financial independence and not subjected to abuse of any form. She also walks me through her life’s journey — challenges faced and how discovering the internet in 2009 has changed her life forever.

Mrs Obisakin spoke about how she got a scholarship to travel to the  United States to be part of an agency-based empowerment workshop and how it equipped her to create a formidable vision and to live her dreams.

She also sheds light on how her conviction and determination paved way for her in the development and growth of the Centre. 

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Highlights from our conversation:

  • Getting women to key into this empowerment program even when it wasn’t common, didn’t come easy => Listen to how she accomplishes this.
  • Women are trained to discover themselves – They work with the theme “I am and I can”, knowing they can achieve just anything in life, developing their dreams and visions.
  • Progress – According to Mrs Obisakin, women are able to progress in their various fields of interest through the workshop and networking. From 2010 till now, WIDC has empowered more than 4,500 women across the country.
  • Her vision is to reach the disenfranchised women.

https://twitter.com/olamideyelo/status/1140603189068218369

https://twitter.com/olamideyelo/status/1140595102684987392

If you’ll like to support and reach out to more women through WIDC, visit http://bit.ly/widcgive