Women Entrepreneurs

FG Urges Women Entrepreneurs To Apply For MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme

by with No Comment Businessfinance

ABUJA – The Federal Government has pledged its commitment to supporting the operations of women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, even as it has advised them to apply for MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme.

READ ALSO: 246,000 Youths to Benefit from FG’s N75bn Youth Fund

Amb. Mariam Yalwaji Katagum, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, made this commitment when a delegation of the Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) led by its National Coordinator, Mrs. Anne Ugbo, paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja.

A statement on Friday by Mrs. Oluwakemi Ogunmakinwa, Assistant Director, Information in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment quoted the minister to have said that Nigerian women entrepreneurs, through their ingenuity have always contributed their quota to national economy and therefore needed to be encouraged for enhanced contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

She reiterated that women-owned businesses were allocated 45 per cent and five per cent for those with special needs in the Federal Government’s MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses.

According to the Minister, “The Federal Government clearly understands the place of women in economic development of our nation and that is why this Ministry is doing everything possible to support them.

Among other initiatives, the Federal Government has also flagged off is the N50billion Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP) on non-oil export businesses thereby safeguarding jobs and creating new jobs.

“I use this medium to encourage more women to apply and we also urge associations to mobilise and sensitise their members,” she said.

Katagum commended the association for the achievements recorded so far and advised the delegation of FEDWIN to formally write to the Ministry, indicating areas of collaboration.

Earlier in her address, the National Coordinator, Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) Mrs. Anne Ugbo said the association was in the ministry to brief the Minister about its programmes and to solicit support for its members across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

She commended the Minister of State for her motherly commitment to the well-being of the Nigerian women through her contributions to the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

She stated that “FEDWIM is established to serve as a platform to create synergy among all women economic empowerment focused groups to provide a single mechanism for coordinated engagement with government and other stakeholders.

“This would engender effective supervision and monitoring of participation in the implementation of programmes and feedback for appropriate policy formulation and decision making on matters of economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women.

“This would fast track the development and competitiveness of the MSME sector, especially for women who are faced with challenges of poor access to affordable finance, appropriate technology and other challenges”.

The National Coordinator said the association was currently mobilising 50,000 women across sectors and levels of operations to participate in the ongoing process of accessing the Agribusiness and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) loan.

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Women in Business

Dr. Shukurat Bello To Speak on Women in Business

by with No Comment Business

Dr. Shukurat Bello To Speak on Women in Business and Ethical Finance

WebTV’s Islamic Finance Weekly will be featuring a robust conversation on Women in Business and Ethical Finance

READ ALSO: Jobberman to develop Nigeria’s e-commerce sector through behavioral profiling

Guest: Dr. Shukurat Bello

Date: Friday, April 09, 2021

Time: 1:00PM (WAT)

Platform: Virtual Zoom Video Call

Highlights: To be deployed on WebTVng Platform, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn

Host: Bukola Akinyele-Yisau

Key Discussion Points

  • How women-run enterprises have fared in driving an ethics-based business model?
  • Islamic businesses, Islamic Finance and Ethical Frameworks
  • Women are increasingly leading C-suite teams in some of the most well-respected boardrooms globally, should we expect to see greater ethical conducts by these institutions, is ethics gender-sensitive?
  • Improving Access to Ethical Finance for Women in Nigeria
  • Principal drivers of increased ethical lending to women, especially in rural and semi-urban communities
  • Women and Capacity Building In Islamic Finance
  • Prospects for Growth in Islamic Finance in Nigeria & Opportunities for Women?

Guest Profile

Dr. Shukurat M. Bello is a Senior Lecturer at the Dangote Business School, the Sub-Dean Academics, Faculty of Management Sciences, Bayero University Kano.

She holds a PhD in Management with 15 years of teaching, research and community development.

She was the best Bayero University Kano, Bsc. Business Administration graduating student in 2002. She won Best paper Award at University of Dubai International Conference in 2018.

She presents academic paper locally and Internationally. She has authored a number of academic journal articles on women issues, business ethics, human resource management and Islamic finance.

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Mansard

AXA Mansard empowers female business owners

by with No Comment BusinessNews

AXA Mansard, a member of AXA, the global leader in insurance and asset management as part of the its plans to foster women empowerment and capacity building has collaborated with SME 100 Africa to empower one female business owner at the 2021 International Women’s Day Conference.

READ ALSO: Government targeting gender-sensitive public financial management processes

The conference which held on Thursday March 4, 2020 was themed ‘Choose to Challenge: Achieving An Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’.

It held in a hybrid (both virtual and physical) format and featured sessions from various successful female business owners such as Mrs. Funke Bucknor-Obruthe, the CEO of Zapphire Events Limited and Fade Ogunro the CEO of Bookings Africa.

It also featured a financial literacy session facilitated by AXA Mansard’s investment officer, Nneoma Mere.

The highlight of the session was the business pitch session where female entrepreneurs presented their pitches and keenly competed for a prize of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) towards their businesses.

GreenHill Recycling Limited founded by Mrs. Mariam Lawani – a social enterprise that provides sustainable solutions to the waste management crisis in Nigeria through recycling and upcycling emerged as the winner of the prize.

Commenting about the pitch competition, the Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at AXA Mansard, Mrs. Olajumoke Odunlami noted that “The pitch session was a thrilling and impactful experience for me.

I am very privileged to have been a part of this session and to have seen the great things that women are doing in business.

Women are the force for change and we must continue to strive to ensure that we are visible and relentless.”

Mrs Odunlami concluded by saying that “AXA is committed to gender equality through implementation of gender initiatives as well as sound and inclusive policies, processes and culture across the organisation.

We believe that women are the key to progress as they are a vital force for growth and development around the world.

We encourage women to take advantage of our SHE for Shield initiative which is tailored towards empowering women.

Every business owner who has made a pitch here is a winner as they are all doing fantastic things with their businesses.

I congratulate the winner of the prize money, Mrs. Lawani whose company is targeted at sustainability.

We at AXA are strong advocates of sustainability and this is also reflected in our targets and policies.

AXA Mansard was incorporated in 1989 as a private limited liability company and is registered as a composite company with the National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NAICOM).

The Company offers life and non-life insurance products and services to individuals and institutions across Nigeria whilst also offering asset/investment management services and health insurance solutions through its two subsidiaries – AXA Mansard Investments Limited and AXA Mansard Health Limited respectively.

AXA Mansard was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in November 2009.

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Women in Business

Nonos Catering empowers women in business

by with No Comment Business

Nonos Catering Service, a fast growing catering company in Lagos, is set to empower women in catering and events business via a one-day summit with successful female professionals in the Industry.

READ ALSO: M36 redefines digital investment in Nigeria

Organised by Nonos Catering Mentoring Initiative (NCMI), the summit tagged ‘Spend the Day with Successful Business Women in Catering and Events,’ holding on March 10, 2021 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, and would have notable successful women in the industry interact and teach the upcoming ones on how to build their businesses to become profit making ventures.

According to the managing director of NCMI, Abumere Uto’ the idea is for successful women who have reputable profit making businesses in catering and events to share their growth story to; inspire, motivate, empower and encourage the women who register to be NCMI mentees.

“By becoming a mentee, we hope that their businesses will gain more visibility, increase profit, employ better marketing strategies as well as reduce loss and wastage,” she said.

Buttressing on the vision which she birthed three years ago, Abumere pointed out that being a trainer and mentor to many women, she realised that there was a strong need to bridge the gap by bringing women at the business start-up stage to meet with established and successful women in the same line of business together.

She said: “I saw the eagerness to learn and hear the success stories of these women who inspired them on a daily basis.

“So on the 9th of March, 2018, I launched the NCMI by inviting 20 women that engage in the business of catering and events to understudy me for a day. The idea of the ‘meet and greet’ was to share my start up story, weaknesses and strengths, success stories and failures in the hope of; inspiring, correcting, motivating and empowering.

“It is my vision that the mentees of NCMI become women who network, collaborate, share business opportunities and increase the quality of their service and productivity. I want them to be women who will also increase their visibility through adverts and social media activities to create more business profitability and sales.

“Most importantly, I would want them to become mentees who will make better business decisions, reduce their cost prices and risks which in turn will guarantee the growth of their business from the time they joined NCMI.

“Through these benefits they are empowered to excel in their businesses as catering and events professionals in the Industry.”

Commenting on meeting the goals of the annual Summit, Uto who holds a Master Degree in Globalisation and Development from the University of Manchester, United kingdom, said her organising team observed the growth and keen interest of participants and decided to host a larger group as it received over 180 applications for the last mentoring initiative held on the 5th of September 2019.

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