From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Grand Africa Initiative-GAIN and the Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) have entered into partnership to train 200 young Nigerian women in an entrepreneurship course titled “GAIN Entrepreneurship Masterclass for Women (Nigeria)”, starting in July 2022.
GAIN is a pan-African non-governmental organization enabling African youths through training, empowerment, mentorship, and advocacy, while DBN is a development finance institution, established by the federal government in collaboration with global development partners to address the major financing challenges facing Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
The organizers, in a statement, explained that the six weeks Entrepreneurship Masterclass was designed to equip the selected young women entrepreneurs from across the country with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to build and scale their businesses to create wealth and jobs.
The program, they added, will include training and mentorship sessions which will be held virtually, and interested candidates are encouraged to apply.
The organisers further explained that the training will cover areas critical to the success of MSMEs including ideation, legal, branding, marketing, communication, accounting, modelling, taxation, team building, structure etc.
Managing Director, DBN, Dr. Tony Okpanachi, in his submissions, highlighted the significance of the women entrepreneurship masterclass, adding, “we are excited about this initiative which speaks to our mandate of providing sustainable funding, building capacity of the Nigerian MSMEs and also providing credit guarantee.
“The GAIN initiative has become imperative platform to reach as many women as possible leveraging technology and promoting gender equality. At the end of this exercise, we hope to see more empowered women creating opportunities towards achieving sustainable social economic development”
On his part, the Programmes and Partnership Lead at GAIN, Mr. Jerry Momoh, in his submissions, stated “we are delighted to have the support of DBN as we continue to empower women to build sustainable businesses.
“This training is expected to prepare the women to develop themselves, develop their businesses, equip them with knowledge to create wealth and jobs by building thriving businesses. We strongly believe that entrepreneurship is a powerful tool for economic empowerment and gender inclusion.
“At GAIN, we are committed to supporting women and young people in general to unleash their potential and contribute significantly to economic development of Nigeria”.
Momoh noted that the program is in line with one of their focus areas at GAIN which is women empowerment. “The program is targeted at selected women from across Nigeria. They would benefit from a faculty of experts in various aspects of business.
“Those eligible for the program are women who have a business or a business idea, between 22 to 45 years of age. They must have demonstrable interest in business, access to internet, internet-enabled device, and electricity to participate in the program.