Nestlé Empowers Rural Women In Southwest Nigeria

Nosa Alekhuogie

Nestlé Nigeria has trained an additional 50 women in the second phase of its rural women empowerment project, titled: ‘Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria’.

The training, which took place at Aurora Events Centre, Osogbo in Osun State recently, brought together beneficiaries comprising female retailers in Nestlé’s retail value chain.

According to the management of Nestlé Nigeria, the beneficiaries will receive grants valued at 300 per cent of their monthly sales in form of Nestlé products. They will also participate in training and mentorship programmes, which will enable them to scale up their businesses, thereby increasing their household incomes.

Speaking at the training, Nestlé Nigeria’s Commercial Manager, Khaled Ramadan said, “We are happy to fulfil our promise of expanding Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria to reach more women in other parts of Nigeria. We are pleased with the progress made by the first 50 beneficiaries who currently enjoy the training and mentorship provided by Nestlé and her implementation partners – FDC Consulting.

“They are reporting faster turnover and increased revenue as well as stronger visibility of their outlets within their locations. We are therefore confident that the 50 selected retailers in South West Nigeria will also reap the full benefits of the support we are providing through training, mentorship and grants.”

Lead Trainer and Head of Partnerships at FDC Consulting, Mr. Phranklin Audu, said: “Following the successful implementation of the pilot phase, the rural women empowerment project from Nestlé Nigeria in its second phase sees rural women from the South-Western Region (Osun & Ekiti States) benefiting from the economic and social empowerment initiative. We commend the Nestlé team for sustaining this initiative. To empower traders with 300% of their current monthly revenue at zero cost to the beneficiaries is indeed worthy of commendation.”

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Bashiru Hairat, expressed her gratitude to Nestle. According to her, “I want to thank Nestlé for doing a lot for my family. I am so happy that I was selected to participate in this program. The grant will increase my business and income which will enable me to improve my standard of living and that of my family.”

Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria is designed to help rural women retailers scale up their businesses and sustain the new level of up to three times the size of their existing business. It is one of the creative shared value initiatives that Nestlé deploys to help build thriving communities in improving livelihoods.