By Dipo Olowookere
Small business owners and artisans living in Nigeria, especially those who are consumers of Nigerian Breweries Plc, have been urged to submit their business plans to enable them to get funding support from the company.
The leading brewery firm is providing at least N200,000 to each of the successful entry for its Goldberg Isedowo and Life Progress Booster initiatives.
Nigerian Breweries, brewers of Life Continental Lager and Goldberg Lager Beer, provided these platforms to empower small business owners and artisans in the country.
Business Post reports that Nigerian Breweries, through these initiatives, has impacted nearly 1,000 businesses and artisans with grants of N200,000.
In the last 4 years, Goldberg has awarded at least N3 million to 100 artisans mostly within rural communities in the target states that it has reached, also celebrating their successes with exciting large scale experiential events.
Launched in 2015, Life Progress Booster focuses on rewarding enterprising minds with the sum of N200,000 to help them implement ideas that will scale their business operations. Since its inception, the CSR project has supported at least 600 businesses, mostly in the South of Nigeria.
The Isedowo initiative on the other hand has been focused on supporting Goldberg’s consumers in the informal sector since 2017, building relationships with informal trade associations to ensure it is able to reach more artisans and support their craft.
Beyond its empowerment goal, it has also become a seal of approval and encouragement for hard work among the average South Westerner in Nigeria.
The Life Progress Booster is expected to cover Rivers, Delta and Edo States, in addition to the five states of the South East, while Goldberg’s Isedowo will go through Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Lagos and Ekiti states.
Last weekend, the 2021 Life Progress Booster initiative was flagged off and this weekend, it would be the turn of Isedowo’s project.
The Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Portfolio, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Ms Kehinde Kadiri, while commenting on the impact of these campaigns over the years, said it has been a delight to watch the Life Progress Booster campaign grow and help many businesses in the Southern part of Nigeria scale and achieve some sustainability.
“These projects are important considering the economic issues and rising rate of unemployment in the country, as they are the best reminders that hard work always pays,” she said.
Goldberg Lager was launched in 2009, 28 years after Life Lager Beer was first brewed in 1981 in Onitsha. Both beers are consumer favourites in the South-Western and South-Eastern parts of Nigeria due to their fine quality and recognition of the culture of their consumers.
Adedapo Adesanya