From Kano to the cloud: Binta’s journey from a local business to the digital marketplace

Binta Tanko is a small agribusiness owner from Kano, Nigeria. Her company, Ahnaf General Entreprises, turns locally grown produce into packaged products for markets in her region. For many years, her work lived entirely offline. Orders came through friends, neighbours, and the occasional referral. Marketing relied on word-of-mouth and growth remained limited. The idea of reaching customers beyond Kano felt like a faraway possibility.

Across Nigeria, thousands of small businesses, many led by women, face the same reality. They have expertise and the ambition to grow, but lack access to digital tools, skills and visibility that today’s economy demands.

I used only my personal WhatsApp. I didn’t know there was a way to organise my business online.

That changed when Binta took the chance to participate in the Digital Business Optimization Training, offered by the Digital Transformation Center Nigeria, together with 100 other women entrepreneurs in Kano. This hands-on, four-day programme was designed to make the digital economy work for the small business owners. Binta and the other participants learned everything from digital marketing and customer engagement to inventory management and content creation. Technical workshops were combined with one-on-one coaching so everyone could apply their news skills immediately.