Africa’s retail giant, Access Bank Plc, has been recognised with the best Company Leadership in Gender Diversity Award, Family-Friendly Workplace Excellence Award and Gender Equality Champion Award at the Gender Leader Awards (GLA), held in Lagos, recently.
The bank also received a special recognition for its efforts in advancing women empowerment and leadership.
This is just as the retail giant unveiled the W initiative Womenprenuer Pitch-a-ton season 5. The W Initiative is aimed at inspiring, connecting and empowering women while riding on Access bank’s vision to be the bank of choice for women in the markets and communities being served.
This is the basis of the bank’s mandate to empower female entrepreneurs with financial and business skills through the Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme.
Meanwhile, the best Company Leadership Awards, organised by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, aimed to promote action toward enhancing gender equality and mainstreaming increased opportunities for women in leadership, employment and entrepreneurship in the Nigerian private sector.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, GMD/CEO, Access Bank Plc, remarked, “We are grateful for this recognition and dedicate the award to our customers, particularly the women who rely on us to provide the right support to scale their businesses and improve their quality of life through initiatives that go beyond banking.
“As we champion gender equality through Nigeria2Equal, we recognise other private sector organisations that have demonstrated exceptional performance in advancing gender-focused initiatives.
“Indeed, these awards speak volumes about the accomplishments of our partnership with IFC, and celebrate the remarkable strides NGX-listed companies have made towards realising a gender-equal society. Access Bank will continue to champion this agenda through the W Initiative with a view to ensure our collective visions are realized.”
Being implemented under the Nigeria2Equal (N2E) programme, the GLA is also designed to recognise and celebrate private sector companies leading the way in gender equality performance.
Speaking on the awards, IFC Senior Country Manager for Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Kalim M. Shah, affirmed that “The awards highlight the inspiring commitment of CEOs and other business leaders to building a more inclusive workplace where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
“IFC is proud to partner with NGX on the Nigeria2Equal programme and on this important award, which underscores IFC’s ongoing commitment to equal opportunities for both men and women in Nigeria’s private sector,” he added.
On his part, the Chief Executive of NGX, Temi Popoola, said, “The awards epitomise our collective commitment to fostering a diverse, inclusive and equitable private sector ecosystem in Nigeria.”
Over the years, Access Bank has provided sustainable tools for women to access true financial inclusion and growth. In 2022, the lender disbursed N40.5 billion to over 64,845 women SMEs.
The Group Head of Women Banking at Access Bank Plc, Abiodun Olubitan, recently confirmed the bank will look to scale this figure to about N100 billion by the end of 2023.
The hybrid event featured captains of industries, capital market regulators, policymakers and investors, among others.
Also, the W Initiative programme is designed to provide female-owned businesses across Africa an opportunity to access finance, world-class business trainings as well as mentoring opportunities
Speaking to newsmen recently, Abiodun Olubitan, Group Head, W Initiative, said, “This programme has been designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
Olubitan 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 economy particularly in the areas of financing, capacity building and creating networking opportunities for women.
“We launched the first womenpreneur pitch-a-ton initiative in 2019 in line with our value proposition to be the number one bank of choice for women in Nigeria, and we have received over 150,000 applications over the last fouryears, awarded the mini-MBA training to 300 women and provided over N45 million in grants.
“This year, we are making the programme bigger and better by increasing the number to 120 women entrepreneurs who will emerge as finalists.”
The 2023 Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme will officially kick off on Monday, June 26 to August 11 and will offer financial grants, an exclusive certified capacity building programme and business coaching aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs.
Interested female entrepreneurs who meet the criteria of having an existing business for at least one year with at least 50 percent female ownership and between the age of 18- 55 years are eligible and required to fill an online application.
All online applications will be reviewed and screened by independent business experts for all 500 candidates who will be required to send in a 60 seconds video pitch for the opportunity to be selected as part of the final top 120 candidates.
“They will benefit from an exclusive and certified mini-MBA and grant prizes. The programme is designed for a three-month period comprising eight weeks of mini-MBA training in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and pitching sessions to a pan-African jury panel where the top finalists will pitch their businesses, infusing learnings from the mini-MBA and will stand an opportunity to win financial grants and other consolation prizes.” Olubitan concluded.
