Firstbank, Eloy Foundation Promote Sustainability Of Female Owned Businesses

Mary NNah

In furtherance of the need to empower female business owners across the country, The ELOY Foundation, in partnership with FirstBank presents the ELOY Foundation Business Shower, created to support female entrepreneurs on their journey to building sustainable businesses. The support from FirstBank will be carried out through the FirstGem loan scheme designed for female-owned or partnered MSMEs and its SMEConnect 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 of a platform to pitch their ideas to win seed grants and join the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme 2022. Participants will also be able to access the FirstGem single-digit loan, where eligible

The ELOY Foundation Business Shower will hold in 5 locations across the country. Kicking off in Lagos on 23 June 2022, the train moves to Port Harcourt on 25 June 2022, then Abuja on 30 June 2022. In July, Kano and Abia will host female business owners on the 2nd and 7th, respectively.

The ELOY Awards Foundation Business Showers will offer an avenue to sustain women’s empowerment by providing entrepreneurial training and mentorship from experienced businessmen and women, arming participants with tools and information to help them grow their businesses.

According to Tewa Onasanya, Founder of the ELOY Awards Foundation, “it is not just enough to talk about empowering business owners, it is very important to sustain empowerment by providing guidance towards their business progress and giving them access to different resources to help them continue to thrive. 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 FirstBank has partnered with the ELOY Team to contribute meaningfully in empowering women to achieve fulfillment in their chosen business endeavours.“

Speaking on the partnership, Folake An-Mumuney, Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, FirstBank said, “We commend ELOY Foundation for their efforts on this initiative as the continued strengthening and inclusiveness of female-driven business endeavours is essential to the growth of the national 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, FirstBank 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.

Registration is currently ongoing for the ELOY Business Shower via the link: https://eloyawards.com/eloy-business-shower-registration/ 

Female business owners are encouraged to send in their business pitch video and business plan for a spot on the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Program and a chance to win a grant for their business.

The ELOY Awards Foundation was launched with the primary aim to empower women business owners through partnerships for access to grants and affordable finance, entrepreneurial training, mentoring, and networking for sustainable empowerment.

The ELOY Awards Foundation is about empowering and challenging thousands of women to be more and do more by providing access to resources and business skills for them to be able to grow, transform and sustain their businesses, which will, in turn, benefit their families and the community at large.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 128 years.