The Adirelounge

About 70% of the women and youth in my community are of low socio-economic status, living in hard to reach areas, and below the poverty line. The artisan and creative sector makes up 25% of the total workforce in Nigeria, making this sector the second largest employer in the country.More than 65% of artisans are not connected digitally which unfortunately makes them more vulnerable to exploitation from middlemen.

The Adirelounge empowers women in rural communities with hand -dyed textile skills,connect the unconnected artisans to local and international markets, helping them to grow sustainable businesses through skill development,design consultation,viable partnerships and market access.

The Adirelounge  solves this problem by reaching  artisans who will all be trained to use mobile services.Adirelounge mobile technology will enable artisans to build their own digital presence and to gain access to the global market,helping to bridge the digital gap that often leaves artisans vulnerable to exploitation.

About 70% of the women and youth in my community are of low socio-economic status, living in hard to reach areas, and below the poverty line. 

Plugging the unemployment gap which has plagued Africa. Empowering widowed women and vulnerable youths.

The artisan and creative sector makes up 25% of the total workforce in Nigeria, making this sector the second largest employer in the country.More than 65% of artisans are not connected digitally which unfortunately makes them more vulnerable to exploitation from middlemen.

The Adirelounge empowers women in rural communities with hand -dyed textile skills, connect the unconnected artisans to local and international markets, helping them to grow sustainable businesses through skill development, design consultation, viable partnerships and market access.

The Adirelounge  solves this problem by reaching  artisans who are trained to use mobile services. Adirelounge mobile technology will enable artisans to build their own digital presence and to gain access to the global market, helping to bridge the digital gap that often leaves artisans vulnerable to exploitation.

Our target population are women living in rural areas and communities within the Lagos Metropolis. 70% of these women live below the poverty line, can't afford education for their children, get exploited by middle men to sell their crafts, and have no digital presence to sell their products globally. 

Our solution empowers the women and youth in our communities enabling them utilise their newly acquired skills to improve their standard of living.We  give these women access to markets by connecting them to buyers. 

• In my work at Adire lounge I work with the local women in the rural dyeing communities, and I have had to train them on digital skills, and ensuring that they have a full on digital presence via a mobile technology app on feature phones. 

• Majority of these Women have little or no education,but my communication and inter-personal skills have enabled me effectively pass on the brand vision and lead the team to productivity. 

• Not leaving the communities themselves behind,I organise town hall meetings with the community leaders and other stakeholders. 

  The solution will address the needs of the women by giving them access to global and local markets via the mobile platform, teach them the vocational skills via our digital platform and also ensure they have a suitable digital presence. 

Our problem, solution and our target population are aligned with the goals of the Fellowship under the  Digital Inclusion Challenge. Our solution ensures that artisan women are connected to the global market via a mobile technology platform. The target population are women and youths in underserved communities who have no skills, and Digital literacy. 

Adirelounge connects the unconnected artisans to local and international markets, helping them to grow sustainable businesses through skill development, design consultation, viable partnerships and market access.

We partnered with community in Lagos in Ajah with 1million inhabitants. We have been able to test our business model in this community and ready to scale and replicate in other neighbouring communities. 

AdireLounge is innovative 

1. Had developed a proprietary and trademarked way of producing unique prints that has been exported to over 15 countries 

2. Employs and teaches widowed women and vulnerable youth to produce these prints, increase digital literacy and also connect them to global market via digital inclusion reducing the unemployment on the continent. Most recently partnering with a community in Lagos with over 1 million inhabitants, most of whom are unemployed and live on less than $2 a day. 

3. Our leveraging of technology to train these women via online classes and as an aggregator by connecting our craftsmen with consumers and fashion and interior designers.

We have currently been able to connect about 300 women digitally to access global markets.

 If we get this grant we will be able to connect 3,000 women digitally and replicate our business model in other communities. 

In 5years we would have mastered our business model a great deal and be able to set up our 10th partnership with a community in Lagos and connected 20,000 women digitally. 

Our impact progress are measured by these indicators:

1. How many women we trained with vocational and digital skills  in a quarter.

2. How many got connected to local and global markets.

3. How many earned above minimum wage.

4. How does this go back to how their family are affected positively. How many kids are now in school, How has their earnings improved? 

Also have a system in place that tracks these allocations for women empowerment and digital inclusion.

12 people work on this solution.

7 Full-time staff

5 Part- time staff

The Adirelounge team is well-positioned to deliver this solution because of the successful track record we have for developing and connecting women artisans to the global markets. The Founder has won many awards and has been part of prestigious entrepreneurship accelerator programs to help fine tune our business model. 

Within our team we have a marketing/product manager who has a vast experience with Technology and creating unique products and ensuring that they scale. Our program office who works directly with the rural communities we partner with has a 5years long experience in ensuring our projects scale and the impacts are measured greatly. As a team, we cover all aspects to ensure we scale this solution.

The Adirelounge is committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive leadership team. Adirelounge  is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment and are not  discriminated against on the basis of race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin. 

Diversity: Our team consists of diverse people. We involved the community we partnered with to employ the women we trained and empowered. Our commitment to this shows in the communities we partner and innovate with.

Equity; Our programs are designed to offer our team members ways to grow and thrive in the organisation.

Inclusion: We created an environment in which everyone feels valued and respected. We build our solutions for the underserved in rural communities to ensure they are empowered financially and digitally. 

I am applying to Solve because:

1. Solve will help provide resources that will help develop our technology base to create more automations to connect the women we serve to the global market.

2. Love will help us meet our peers that will offer inspiration and guidance, we will also be a part of a powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries that will bring insight in the work that we do. 

3. Access to mentorship and strategic advice that will help us scale our solution. 

The following ways we need partnership and support are:

1. Financial: We would need investors and financial partners to help us reach our goal of  empowering 10,000 women artisans in 5years and connecting them digitally to the global market. 

2. Product/Service Distribution: Distribution is key in us scaling our solution. We would need partners to help in retail distribution globally of our products. 

We have no specific partner organisations in mind yet. We would want partners that can contribute greatly to our project. This will ensure that our solution becomes scaleable and viable. Partners to help  support our marketing and communications and also build connections to investors and grantors to progress their fundraising strategy. 

The Adirelounge qualifies for The HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity because we empower women artisans in rural communities with digital and vocational skills and connect them to global markets. The solution has given these women an economic opportunity to own a mobile device, learn a skill, and earn an income. 

The Adirelounge solution qualifies for the Innovation for Women Prize because we have been able to innovate around how women artisan are connected to the global markets and not get exploited by middle men. We empower these women with digital training, and also ensure that they are connected to global markets via innovative digital solutions . With this innovation the artisan women are able to take care of their children, afford health care and education.