Over the years, women empowerment has become a matter of serious concern to well-meaning individuals and responsible corporate entities in Africa, as a result of the critical roles the female gender plays in the society.
Evidently, many females do not have the same privileges as their male counterparts, that is, the right to both formal and informal education; lack or inadequacy of it, put them in a most disadvantaged position. This equally stifles the opportunity of making them better citizens who would impact their families and the society, and by extension, reduce the gender inequality gap.
It is noteworthy that, women empowerment is the process of promoting women’s sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own choices, and their right to influence social and economic changes thereby impacting and contributing to the development of the society.
To this end, corporate organisations have continued to be at the forefront, championing and pushing for female inclusion, gender equality and empowerment as a social objective to ensure inclusive balance through various initiatives.
Interestingly, the International Women’s Day (IWD), no doubt has been a platform which corporate organisations use to promote and encourage women to be self-reliant and productive. The theme for this year’s celebration “Inspire Inclusion, Invest in Women: Accelerate progress” focusing on women’s economic empowerment, has propelled brands such as NEM Insurance Plc to empower five female entrepreneurs (Olayewola Temilola, Hart Ifeoma Charity, Mozeedat Adediran, Chinenye Opara and Funmilayo Esther Famuyiwa) with the sum of N100,000 financial grant each to expand and improve their businesses as NEM commemorates the 2024 IWD.
The elated winners who emerged from the “NEM She Means Business Challenge” went through rigorous processes of evaluation and selection, in the end, acknowledged the brand for their tremendous drive to inspire the women folks by the wonderful gesture. Notably, NEM received a total of 230 entries from interested participants nationwide.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NEM Insurance Plc, Mr. Andrew Ikekhua, during the presentation of the cash gift to the beneficiaries at the grand event that climaxed the celebration, congratulated the winners for a well-deserved reward. He added that the outcome of the contest has been nothing short of extraordinary as each winner received a well-deserved financial grant of N100,000 to further fuel their business growth and innovation. He pledges the brand’s continuous support as the winners embark on the entrepreneurial journey.
Even with limited resources, women are motivated for greatness, because of their relentlessness and doggedness. Therefore, it has become a clarion call for all and sundry, to inculcate policies and programmes that accelerate and back women development to the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
