Ellah & Gwynneth’s story: One woman’s success uplifts thousands more

Ellah Omezi runs Pleroma Farms and Agribusiness from Abuja, Nigeria. She felt a calling to alleviate poverty for people living in the North of her country by empowering the region’s women farmers, and wanted the support of a mentor to boost her business and catalyse her impact. In May 2023, she joined our Mentoring Women in Business programme, where we matched her with Gwynneth Anderson in Washington DC, USA, who worked as Manager and Portfolio Lead for the PayPal Giving Platform – PayPal being one of our programme’s partners. Together, they worked to support Ellah to take her business to the next level and claim her rightful place as a social impact leader.

Early days 

Ellah originally trained as a banker, before moving into accounting in the oil sector. Well aware of the poverty experienced by many in the north of Nigeria, she undertook another career change, into farming, and relocated to Abuja: “I was going into communities to watch farmers and saw that they really needed support. That led me to train as a farmer under the ECOSOC model – so that I could help people by passing on best practices to them.” 

Ellah launched her farming business and started to process produce in 2021 so that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, she was able to begin exporting. “I train women,” explains Ellah of her business model, “then we assign a farm coordinator from our company to work with them. Right now we are in six states in northern Nigeria and have over 1,500 women farmers and processors who we’ve trained and are working with. It’s been such an interesting journey.” 

Keen to keep increasing her community impact, Ellah joined the Mentoring Women in Business programme, in her words “to be able to empower women and help them to boost their livelihoods and support their families.” She wanted to meet, network with and learn from like-minded people – particularly as the entrepreneurial journey was fairly new to her – but to have a mentor’s support was paramount: “I wanted to have someone to guide and advise me and that’s exactly what I got. As I worked, I knew someone was concerned with what I was doing, and that gave me the confidence to do much more.” 

Gwynneth had been aware that her company, PayPal, was a partner on the Mentoring programme for some time. She had worried in the past that she was too busy to take part as a mentor, but realized it was something she really wanted to do, so she applied: “My own manager was a mentor to me and had pushed me really hard to stretch my own limits within the company, so I wanted to do the same for someone else. Plus, I’d always had a passion for supporting small businesses, so it just made sense for me to mentor a woman entrepreneur!” 

Building a winning relationship

Gwynneth had anticipated a mentee who was just starting out. When she was matched with Ellah and saw that she was on the cusp of transitioning into a medium to large business, Gwynneth realised things would be a little different – but that that was the beauty of the programme: “Ellah had used her expertise to find the perfect business niche. She brought her farming background and accounting acumen together with her passion for supporting women – she was really ahead of the curve. She had so much knowledge and skill already and had built a brilliant business. My priority was understanding from Ellah where I could support her to progress even further. It became clear that that was in being her cheerleader and sounding board, and being there to keep her on track and structured.” 

They kicked off by identifying Ellah’s goals for the year: to set up a store in Abuja where she could sell both fresh produce and packaged foods, to sign a contract with an international distributor, and to expand her product line. For 12 months, the pair collaborated through the purpose-built online Mentoring Women in Business platform to progress towards the goals. 

“Gwynneth always cheered me on,” notes Ellah, “She’s been a great mentor. I always looked forward to our sessions together. As well as her advice and guidance, having her always tell me, “I know you can do this – I believe in you” pushed me to achieve more. Gwynneth gave me boldness and confidence. It’s like I had an advisor who was also somebody to report to every two weeks, which gave me a sense of belonging and motivation. I’m so grateful for that.” 

Ellah found the programme’s managed structure and supplementary support particularly useful, too: “I had access to more than enough resources to leverage and the Foundation’s support was overwhelming. Feedback that I was prompted to submit each time I had my mentoring session helped me to stay very focussed and achieve all that I had planned.”   

Shared successes 

Over the course of her mentorship with Gwynneth, meeting online every two weeks, Ellah more than attained her goals. She increased production capacity by 45%, turnover by 40% and profit by more than 30%. Ellah feels strongly the role that her mentor’s support played in her achievements: “Gwynneth gave me that push to increase production capacity and seek out new distributors, which then increased revenue and profits.” 

A strategic expansion of her products during her time on the programme supported Ellah to access new markets: “We looked at our markets, for example the UAE where there was high demand for tea products, so we focussed on expanding these. Our products now include lemongrass tea, hibiscus tea, ginger tea and more. Through this approach we’ve penetrated a number of international markets including China, Germany, the Gambia and Togo.” 

For Gwynneth the success is all Ellah’s: “She just needed that little push to get going. I was there to cheer her on and I’m so proud of her, knowing the challenges that she’s faced. These are all her accomplishments – I am overwhelmed by what she has been able to do.” 

Gwynneth too experienced a range of benefits, as do so many of the programme’s mentors, among them a boost to her communication, leadership and problem-solving skills, knowledge of a new market and increased cultural awareness. She affirms that, “working with Ellah reminded me of how important it is to not only listen but to ask the right questions to help her creatively think of new solutions.” 

“In terms of professional growth, the programme has supplemented my skills,” Gwynneth continues, “but more than that, it’s reminded me of how important it is to work on something bigger than myself. It is very humbling to be a mentor and to see things take off for someone who is working so hard. When you meet someone who has so much potential and is really actualizing it, like Ellah, it’s inspiring. It makes me want to do better in my own life and accomplishments.” 

The ripple effect 

Ellah’s success means a lot to her: “For me, there’s a lot of personal fulfilment in seeing that what I started small is now growing. I have grown in my leadership and I know that my staff enjoy the leadership I bring and how we work together. My biggest achievement was when I was invited to present at the African Union, representing SMEs in West Africa. When I gave my presentation, the audience stood to applaud me. I truly believe this is thanks to my mentoring – I had that confidence and boldness.” 

But Ellah’s success doesn’t stop with her – it ripples out to entire communities: “It brings me joy to see that my business is making an impact. My successes are also for the women farmers – their economic empowerment. We are able to create jobs for them, but also support them in other ways. For some, we set up solar kiosks, where people pay to charge devices. For others, we purchase freezers so that they can sell frozen food. All to enable them to have multiple streams of income. We’re also provide further training, for example on how to manage post-harvest losses. There are so many people who are happy today, who have food on their table, who are able to send their children to school – all because of this programme. I don’t take it lightly.” 

What’s next for Ellah’s business? 

Ellah’s increased profits and markets are just the beginning: “We’re investing most profits back into the business so we can research and develop new products – this is a specialism for us and our customers,” she says, “We’ve been able to buy new equipment and increase salaries. We’re starting to sell through major, international online marketplaces. We’re also launching a cooperative with the women farmers and processors we support.” 

Gwynneth couldn’t sing Ellah’s praises more highly and notes her vision for Ellah’s continued progress as a leader: “She’s attending conferences all over the world, she won a spot in a business accelerator programme, she even won a first prize from Google Academy. She’s at such a high level now that if she has another mentor they would need to be at a C-suite level, to guide her on that big picture, big business strategy.”  

Gwynneth concludes, “The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s mission is to empower women to start, grow and sustain successful businesses so they can redefine the future for themselves and their societies, and this is exactly what Ellah has done.” 

Ellah’s shares her parting thoughts: “I would encourage every woman to take part in the Mentoring programme – it’s a must. The benefits are beyond words. Firstly, capacity building and mentoring is so key for business. Secondly, this is an opportunity to grow your personal and professional development through knowledge, insights and guidance. Then there’s the opportunity to connect with other like-minded women in businesses and industry experts. You need to commit, even when your business is very busy. But when you persevere you will definitely achieve your goals. You will be happy. You will be proud. You will be celebrated.”