Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
No fewer than 200 female Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were recently empowered with financial literacy and digital business skills by AXA Mansard.
This is part of the company’s continued investment in advancing the inclusion of women’s social and economic endeavours, particularly at a period when the world celebrated the 2024 International Women’s Day.
The AXA member, a global leader in insurance and asset management, conducted the training for the beneficiaries in partnership with SME 100 Africa.
The insurer expressed confidence that support for women through its inclusive protection programmes is pivotal to its purpose of acting for human progress by protecting what matters and its mission of moving from being a payer to a partner.
The Head of Marketing at AXA Mansard, Mr Olusesan Ogunyooye, emphasised that this was why the two-day training was organised to equip the female SME owners with skills to improve business output and position them for the increasing economic opportunities available in an increasingly digital marketplace.
“It’s almost trite to say that SMEs are the engine for economic growth, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where over 45 million adults are business owners.
“What needs to be continually discussed is how Nigeria is going to unlock that potential for economic development and how much of that potential will be unlocked by women and for women.
“For us at AXA Mansard, we are aware that digital will play a major role in unlocking these current opportunities and Nigeria’s economic future.
“So, to ensure that women are equally represented in unlocking these future potentials, that’s why we have collaborated with SME 100 Africa to support them in developing the required skills.
“Our choice of digital and financial literacy skills is deliberate. We understand the power of the duo. We understand that helping these SMEs with the skills to attract more customers will be a faster means to empower them.
“We see that they have amazing products and services, but they need to understand how to attract value for themselves by attracting the right customers, and you will agree with me that virtually all customer segments are online in one way or another today.
“So, if we can empower them with digital business skills, we would have helped them with the heavy lifting of trying to find and attract customers,” Mr Ogunyooye said.
