First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. has brokered a partnership with ELOY Foundation to create a business shower initiative that will support female entrepreneurs to enable them to build sustainable businesses.
The bank made this known on Tuesday in Lagos in a statement issued and signed by Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney, its Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications.
Ani-Mumuney said the partnership was in furtherance of the need to empower female business owners across the country.
She said that the continuous strengthening and inclusiveness of female-driven business endeavours was essential to national economic growth.
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“We are happy to partner with ELOY Foundation on its Business Shower and together, we will drive the entrepreneurial viability of participants and expose them to business nuggets that will take their business to the next level,” she said.
Mrs Tewa Onasanya, Founder, ELOY Awards Foundation, said the bank’s support would be carried out through the FirstGem loan scheme for female-owned/partnered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and its SMEConnect initiative.
Onasanya said that the partnership was focused on key sectors of the economy and designed to expose female entrepreneurs to essential business skills and the ELOY Foundation Business Toolkit, a compilation of business survival skills nuggets.
She said the business shower would avail businesses a platform to pitch their ideas to win seed grants and join the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme 2022.
“The ELOY Foundation Business Shower will hold in five locations across the country kicking off in Lagos on June 23, 2022.
“The train moves to Port Harcourt on June 25, then Abuja on June 30, while Kano and Abia will host female business owners on July 2 and 7, respectively,” Onasanya said.
She said that it was not just enough to talk about empowering business owners, adding that it was also very important to sustain their empowerment.
Onasanya explained that this could be done by providing guidance toward 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,” she said.
She disclosed that registration was currently ongoing for the ELOY Business Shower via https://eloyawards.com/eloy-business-shower-registration/
“Female business owners are encouraged to send in their business pitch video and business plan for a spot on the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme and a chance to win a grant for their business,” she said.
ELOY Awards Foundation was launched with the aim of empowering women business owners through partnerships.
The partnership provides access to grants and affordable finance, entrepreneurial training, mentoring and networking for sustainable empowerment. (NAN)