Harboursandport.com: Lagos - As part of its continued investment in advancing the inclusion of women's social and economic endeavours, AXA Mansard, a member of AXA, the global leader in insurance and asset management, has empowered 200 female Small and Medium Enterprises with financial literacy and digital business skills.
In
collaboration with SME 100 Africa, the two-day training, which was held in
Lagos, is part of AXA's lined-up programmes to commemorate this year's
International Women's Day.
In addition to the series of women empowerment Initiatives, AXA Mansard has been training female SMEs over the past few years as part of its plan to Increase financial and digital literacy amongst female-owned SMEs In Nigeria.
According to
the Head of Marketing AXA Mansard, Olusesan Ogunyooye, the training aims to empower female SME
owners with skills to improve business output and position them for the
increasing economic opportunities available in an increasingly digital
marketplace.
Ogunyooye
noted that the move is in line with AXA Mansard's sustainability agenda,
explaining that the company is convinced that support for women through its
inclusive protection programmes is pivotal to its purpose of acting for human
progress by protecting what matters and its mission of moving from being a
payer to a partner.
He furthered
that focusing on digital skills is important because the company realizes the
importance of digital skills to the growth of the SME sector in Nigeria and
wants to ensure that women are empowered enough to be a consequential part of
that growth.
“It's almost
trite to say that SMEs are the engine for economic growth, especially in
developing countries like Nigeria, where over 45 million adults are business
owners. What needs to be continually discussed is how Nigeria is going to
unlock that potential for economic development and how much of that potential
will be unlocked by women and for women.
“For us at
AXA Mansard, we are aware that digital will play a major role in unlocking
these current opportunities and Nigeria's economic future. So, to ensure that
women are equally represented in unlocking these future potentials, that's why
we have collaborated with SME 100 Africa to support them in developing the
required skills.
“Our choice
of digital and financial literacy skills is deliberate. We understand the power
of the duo. We understand that helping these SMEs with the skills to attract
more customers will be a faster means to empower them. We see that they have
amazing products and services, but they need to understand how to attract value
for themselves by attracting the right customers, and you will agree with me
that virtually all customer segments are online in one way or another today.
So, if we can empower them with digital business skills, we would have helped
them with the heavy lifting of trying to find and attract customers".
Ogunyooye explained.
AXA Mansard
believes that for the world to truly experience progress, there must be an
equitable distribution of creation and access to opportunities for men and
women. This quest for balance informed the SHE for Shield initiative, a
women-centred inclusive protection programme of AXA Mansard.
SHE for
Shield is a group of initiatives designed for the Nigerian woman. The goal is
to see them grow, add value, and help them mitigate risks every step.
According to
the company, research has found that access to health care is one of the most
important things to Nigerian women, regardless of their economic segment. They
desire to be financially independent, secure, and respected in the community.
No comments:
Post a Comment