RETAIL giant Access Bank plc has unveiled the W initiative Womenprenuer Pitch-a-ton Season 5, the financial service group said in a statement. The W Initiative aims to inspire, connect and empower women while riding on the 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. The programme is designed to provide female-owned businesses across Africa an opportunity to access finance, world-class business training as well as mentoring opportunities.
Speaking to newsmen, Abiodun Olubitan, Group Head W Initiative said, “This programme has been designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
Access Bank has been a leading advocate for women’s economic empowerment in Africa. This is the key motivation for the ‘W’ Initiative, which caters to the women’s economy, particularly in 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 No. 1 Bank of Choice for women in Nigeria, and we have received over 150,000 applications over the last 4 years, 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 – August 11, 2023, and will offer financial grants, an exclusive certified capacity building program 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% female ownership and between the age range 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 five hundred (500) candidates who will be required to send in a sixty-second 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 3-month period comprising 8 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.” Abiodun concluded. (text excluding headline from DGN)