Access Bank Set to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

Nume Ekeghe

Access Bank in its continuous bid to empower female entrepreneurs with financial and business skills has called on women entrepreneurs globally to apply for its Womenpreneur Pitch-a-Ton Africa season four.

The Group Head, W Initiative, Access Bank Group, Mrs. Abiodun Olubitan, made the call at a media roundtable for the unveiling of Access Bank W Initiative: Pitch-a-ton season 4 in Lagos over the weekend.

She noted that the competition is open to Nigerian business owners from age 18 to 55, whose businesses are legal and registered in Nigeria.

This year’s edition is slated to have 27 winners emerge with the top seven receiving financial grants of N5 million and the additional 20 will be consolation prizes which would include free website development, and free advertisement, and a mini MBA in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC)

She also added that female-owned businesses across Africa have an opportunity to access finance, world-class business training as well as mentoring opportunities.

Olubitan said: “ This initiative was designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.”

Olubitan said that the bank was expecting 40,000 applications as against 30,000 received last year and noted that four thousand applications since it opened. She explained that those who had applied and were not lucky to be selected as one of the top 100, would be harvested into the W Community.