Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), a non-profit organisation, has stated its promoting education by empowering 250 girl child through soft skills, financial literacy and business management through the Big Sister programme in selected schools across Nigeria.
To this end, the event held simultaneously at two different secondary schools, Lagos City College, and Wesley Girls College, in Yaba, Lagos was designed for girls from the age of 14 to 18, to put that as a foundation for them to begin to believe in themselves, that they achieve greatness.
Speaking at the event, the executive director, WIMBIZ, Omowummi Akingbohungbe described the Big Sister Programme as an exciting, interactive and educative activity designed for girls to be empowered with soft skills that will help them navigate the journey in life.
She said: “We decided to take a step back and have the Big Sister Program where we’re sort of engaging the girls at a more tender age to get them to be inspired, first of all, by seeing other big sisters who have gone through the kind of experience that they have gone through and are here in different leadership positions
“And these big sisters are also our facilitators who are sharing their wealth of knowledge in line with the curriculum that we have designed for the programme.”
In his remark, Principal, Lagos City College, Mr. Hassan Abiodun expressed gratitude to the women-led organisation while lauding the initiative as a Noble programme with the training of over 250 girls in life skills, soft skills and financial literacy, as this will be a guide and turning point in their lives.
On her part, WIMBIZ Big Sister Programme 2024 Chair, Folake Adama said: “The female-led non-profit organisation partnered with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) to empower and inspire the girls so that they can begin to dream big for the future, for themselves now, to develop their self-confidence and their self-belief, so they can become whoever they want to become in life.
“We thought developing soft skills and life skills could even increase your chances of becoming a leader. As quickly as possible. And one of the things we realised, even those who go to all the other schools, is life skills, it’s soft skills, it’s those other things that are not the academics that propel you to leadership.”
Similarly, national robotic competition winner and a Senior student of the Lagos City College, Mercy Akiya, said: “I have been encouraged to know more about financial literacy and also on how to empowered to know more and be more ambitious and see myself to be a change-maker and be one of those women who don’t see male dominance as a normality in the workplace by being the best I can be. I feel like I need to improve my self-confidence and self-esteem through the Big Sister Programme.”
