FirstBank Partners Foundation On Female Entrepreneurs

First Bank of Nigeria is partnering ELOY Foundation to offer support to female entrepreneurs through its women focused product, FirstGem as well as its SMEConnect Initiative.

The bank, in a statement yesterday said, the partnership with ELOY Foundation was in furtherance of the need to empower female business owners across the country.

The partnership, which will be under the ELOY Foundation Business Shower, is designed to help support female entrepreneurs on their journey to building sustainable businesses.

According to the bank, the partnership focuses on key sectors of the economy and designed to have female entrepreneurs exposed to essential business skills like training, networking and the ELOY Foundation Business Toolkit, a compilation of business survival skills nuggets.

The business shower will avail businesses a platform to pitch their ideas to win seed grants and join the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme 2022. Participants will also be able to access the FirstGem single digit loan, where eligible

Founder of the ELOY Awards Foundation, Tewa Onasanya, speaking on the partnership said “it is not just enough to talk about empowering business owners, it is very important to sustain empowerment by providing guidance towards their business progress and giving them access to different resources to help them continue to thrive.

“MSMEs are the backbone of any nation and there is a great need to sustain this chain of the economy. It is on this common ground that FirstBank has partnered with the ELOY Team to contribute meaningfully in empowering women to achieve fulfilment in their chosen business endeavours.“

On her part, the group head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Folake An-Mumuney, said: “we commend ELOY Foundation for their efforts on this initiative as the continued strengthening and inclusiveness of female driven business endeavours is essential to the growth of the national economy. We are happy to partner with ELOY Foundation on its Business Shower.

“Together, we will drive the entrepreneurial viability of participants and expose them to business nuggets that will take their business to the next level.”

The ELOY Foundation Business Shower will hold in 5 locations across the country. Kicking off in Lagos on 23 June 2022, the train moves to Port Harcourt on 25 June 2022, then Abuja on 30 June 2022. In July, Kano and Abia will host female business owners on the 2nd and 7th, respectively.

The ELOY Awards Foundation Business Showers will offer an avenue to sustain women empowerment by providing entrepreneurial training and mentorship from experienced businessmen and women, arming participants with tools and information to help them grow their businesses.