Access Bank has empowered 113 female entrepreneurs in its womenpreneur pitch-a-ton competition.
This is as the Bank awarded a total of N17.5 million in business grants to 10 female entrepreneurs that won in the competition.
Also, the office of the Vice President awarded the sum of N500,000 to five women, among other prizes. Among the 35 finalists, the winners received cash prizes ranging from N500,000 to N5 million, with Simkay Foods securing the top prize of N5 million.
Launched in 2019, the Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton competition in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is designed to provide female owned businesses across Africa an opportunity to access finance and world-class business training as well as mentoring opportunities.
Subsequently, the program was extended to 10 other African countries where Access Bank’s W initiative has its presence. The program has since awarded the Mini-MBA training to 645 women entrepreneurs and provided over $175,000 in grants across Africa.
Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony of the competition held in Lagos, the Group head W Initiative, Abiodun Olubitan said, “this programme has been designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.”
She said “Access Bank has been a leading advocate for women’s economic empowerment in Africa and this is the key motivation for the ‘W’ Initiative which caters to the women’s economy particularly in the areas of financing, capacity building and creating networking opportunities for women.”
Speaking on the procedure, Olupitan said “out of over 30,000 that put in for the programme, we are graduating 113 women who have successfully completed the programme.”
Head of Office, Nigeria, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Christian Mulamula noted that “it is an honor to recognise the entrepreneurs who have undertaken the eight-weeks program that was developed in partnership with the IFC with the goal to unlock opportunities for women entrepreneurs.”
He added that “as entrepreneurs, we know that knowledge is not just a tool for personal growth. It is also a gateway to opening new paths for business development and access to finance.”
He emphasised that “empowering female entrepreneurs is not just a matter of equality. It is a crucial factor for economic development across the world.”
The overall winner, Rejoice Usim from Simkay Foods expressed gratitude to Access Bank, saying that this achievement will enable the company to onboard more farmers on its database platform.
She stated that this will ensure that post-harvest losses would be eradicated, saying that “right now, we only work with two communities in Zaria and Kaduna, but now, we will be taking the programme or services to the other 19 northern States.”
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