NASME pledges support for women entrepreneurship

The Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) has pledged its support for women entrepreneurs in the country.

The National President of NASME, Dr Abdulrashid Yerima, made the pledge in an interview with journalists on Monday in Abuja.

Yerima said that plans were underway to ensure a hitch free NASME women summit designed to commemorate the 2022 International Women’s Day.

According to him, the event scheduled for March 15 in Lagos and with the theme “Break the Bias” intends to reinforce action for gender parity.

Yerima said that no fewer than 500 women were expected to attend the event.

“What it tends to achieve is to show women that we support the development of women in MSMEs; there is no barrier,’’ he said.

The NASME president urged women entrepreneurs to register with NASME to gain from myriad of benefits the association offers.

“It is important to enable them become competitive, to know how they can brand their products and have access to local and international markets.

“These are some of the things they can benefit from being in NASME.

“We support them to also get loans at a lower rate and to know how to access the loan, manage it and pay back.

“This is important so that their revenue can improve and their businesses can be sustainable,’’ Yerima said.

He added that the summit would expose the women to new technologies and information that could help improve productivity and services.

“We are expecting no fewer than 500 women to attend from across the country.

“Also the issue of energy would be discussed because of the high cost of energy and logistics.

“There is renewable energy and there is what we call the energy transition whereby we don’t need to rely only on diesel and petrol. There is gas and there is solar and these are far cheaper for MSMEs.

“They can be supported to manage their energy consumption and be able to afford these newer energies that are less harmful to the environment,’’ Yerima said.