I Came With a Business Idea. I Left With a Business." — Meet a YWLC 2025 Alumna

When Amina arrived at YWLC 2025 – headlined by Beyond Boundaries – she had a notebook full of ideas and a deep uncertainty about whether any of them were worth pursuing.

She was 24, a recent graduate, and had spent the better part of a year talking herself out of starting the fashion brand she had been dreaming about since secondary school. The market was too competitive. She didn't have capital. She didn't know the right people.

By the end of the conference, three of those excuses had disappeared.

"The Business and Tech session completely shifted my thinking," she says. "They didn't just talk theory. They walked us through real steps — how to validate an idea, how to pitch, how to find your first ten customers. I started taking notes and couldn't stop."

Amina applied for the Business Development Training programme. She was selected as one of twenty participants and received the ₦500,000 grant that followed.

Today, her brand — handcrafted contemporary African womenswear — has fulfilled over 60 orders and counts three boutiques among its stockists.

"YWLC didn't give me the idea. I had that. It gave me the belief that the idea was worth something. And then it gave me the tools to prove it."

Stories like Amina's are why YWLC exists. And in 2026, we are committed to creating more of them.