Widows Empowerment Program – December 2022

Women Impacting Nigeria (WIN) held the 2022 Edition of its Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP) on the 10th of December, 2022 at Cane Village, Mende, Maryland in Lagos State.

The WEP is an Initiative of WIN, targeted at women who run business enterprises and who are in need of financial and business skills to help them grow their businesses.

WIN continues to provide women with financial grants and empower underserved women with business skills to enhance and increase their business visibility and productivity. At WIN, we believe that financial inclusion and economic empowerment is a necessity for a gender equitable Nigeria.

Prior to the program, WIN’s Research and Development team discovered a community of cane weaving women, in Mende, Maryland. These women operate their cane weaving business on a small scale as a result of lack of access to financial products to grow their businesses.

This initiative of WIN is in line with the SDG 1 and SD5 of eliminating poverty and gender inequality. Thousands of women owned businesses and widows have been empowered with financial grants, digital skills, business management skills and tools via this initiative.

Quite a number of women owned businesses have been rescued from an imminent shutdown through WIN’s WEP and those businesses are presently thriving and doing well.

For the 2022 edition of WEP, based on the needs assessment carried out, the women were given a sum of N100,000 each to help their business and overall welfare.

The beneficiaries of this edition’s WEP program are Charity Akpojotar, Esther Obugwa, Helen Oboro, Helen Egboye, and Queen Ekuorder.

The event recorded a great turn out by the women in the locality. It is also worthy to note that aside from the financial grant awarded to beneficiaries, the event also featured a financial literacy session for all attendees.

The financial literacy session covered training on Savings, Investment, Personal Finance and Business Management. The sessions were handled by seasoned facilitators who were able to impact the residents as the majority of them are illiterate.

The beneficiaries were ecstatic and expressed their joy at receiving the much needed grant for their businesses. The women community also expressed their gratitude for the financial education they received.

Charity Akpojotar, a beneficiary of the WEP grant, was excited about the funds she received. After 22 years of being in the cane weaving business without enough capital and funds to scale her business, she couldn’t contain her joy at the event. In her own words, she said. “I am grateful for this grant. It’ll help me get materials to grow my business and take it to the next level.”