In furtherance of the need to empower Nigerian female business owners, the ELOY Foundation and First Bank have partnered to present the ELOY Foundation Business Shower, created to support female entrepreneurs to enable them to build sustainable businesses in the country. The support from First Bank will be carried out through the FirstGem loan scheme designed for female-owned or partnered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and its SME Connect initiative.
The partnership focuses on key sectors of the economy and is designed to have female entrepreneurs exposed to essential business skills like training, networking and the ELOY Foundation Business Toolkit, a compilation of business survival skills nuggets. The business shower will avail businesses the platform to pitch their ideas to win seed grants and join the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme 2022. Participants will also access the FirstGem single digit loan, where eligible
The ELOY Foundation Business Shower will hold in five locations across the country beginning in Lagos on June 23, 2022, the train will then move to Port Harcourt, Rivers State on June 25, 2022 and Abuja on 30 June 2022. It will move to Kano and Abia on July 2, 2022 and July 7, 2022, respectively.
The ELOY Awards Foundation Business Showers will offer an avenue to sustain women empowerment by providing entrepreneurial training and mentorship from experienced businessmen and women, arming participants with tools and information to help them grow their businesses.
Founder of the ELOY Awards Foundation, Tewa Onasanya, said: “It is not just enough to talk about empowering business owners, it is important to sustain empowerment by providing guidance towards their business progress and giving them access to different resources to help them continue to thrive.
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“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 First Bank has partnered with the ELOY Team to contribute meaningfully in empowering women to fulfil their chosen business endeavours.”
Also speaking on the partnership, Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications of First Bank, Folake An-Mumuney, said: “We commend ELOY Foundation for its efforts on this initiative, as the continued strengthening and inclusiveness of female-driven business endeavours remain crucial to the growth of the economy.
“We are happy to partner with ELOY Foundation on its Business Shower. Together, we will drive the entrepreneurial viability of participants and expose them to business nuggets that will take their business to the next level.
“Woven into the fabric of society for over 128 years, First Bank plays a leading role in supporting women through strategic empowerment, capacity building and mentorship programs for women in MSME, leveraging its FirstGem and SMEConnect propositions to women across diverse sectors of the economy as well as strategic partnerships with women empowerment organisations like ELOY.
Organisers of the initiative said registration is currently ongoing for the ELOY Business Shower and that female business owners are encouraged to send in their business pitch video and business plans for a spot on the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme and a chance to win a grant for their businesses.
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