Dr. Dina Nziku is a lecturer in the School of Business and Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Paisley Campus. She has extensive experience across a range of Enterprise and Business topics. She has a particular interest on female entrepreneurship and government strategies/policies for promoting enterprise and innovation in developing countries. She is one of CAREED's founding members of its Steering Committee.

Dina also works with ethnic minority women groups as well as inspiring youths in Glasgow, Scotland. She has published papers in academic journals such as:The Journal of Women Entrepreneurship and Education, and has presented a number of research papers at various international conferences and within the United Kingdom. These include: the International Council for Small Businesses(ICSB) Conference and the Diana International Research Conference of Women Entrepreneurship. Dina has also made a number of keynote speeches in research conferences, such as the ThinkTank-International Conference on Women Entrepreneurship and has taken part in the United Nations (UNCTAD) Panel:"Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-Building and Sustainable Development" where Dina was invited to speak on Sub-Saharan Female Entrepreneurship.

Dina is currently working on the Global Women Entrepreneurship Project (WEP), and is involved in teaching Enterprise Creativity, Professional Development as well as Entrepreneurial Leadership. She takes the view that entrepreneurship education plays crucial role in the support and development of enterprise in the creation of high employment as well as sustaining the general economy. In pursuit of this, Dina is involved not only in lecturing and research within UWS. She is also assisting the African Diaspora currently living in Scotland to overcome barriers to enterprise and to be able to integrate fully within the host community.

Desired Research Direction

I wish to consolidate my research interests in female entrepreneurship, especially within the African context. To this end, I intend to target high level publications in leading academic journals. I would also wish to extend existing collaborations with external partners such as UNCTAD especially their EMPRETEC programme; the Global Women Entrepreneurship Project; and the Diana International Women Entrepreneurship; and Gender Entrepreneuship Network (GEN) within ISBE. Particular focus for my research will include: music entrepreneurship in Africa; and social enterprise. 

Target Collaborative Companies

This will include a number of relevant companies who have interests in Africa especially from a social enterprise perspective and these could be NGOs and other not-for-profit companies, in Scotland as well as in Africa.

Target Collaborative Organisations

These include international organisations already referred to above such as UNCTAD. In addition, through CAREED I wish to extend collaboration with such organisations as Africa Forum Scotland, Women Entrepreneurship Scotland (WES), Young Entrepreneurship Scotland (YES). Within the university sector I have contacts with the following institutions: University of Dar Es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC), Mzumbe University, Tanzania, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany, Maashrict School of Management, Netherlands, which I intend to develop further.

Other areas of expertise

Research writing retreats

Migration advocacy, due to my involvement with the UK based Migration Advisory Committee

Advising potential women entrepreneurs in Scotland and in Africa in a mentoring capacity.