Access Bank Plc has unveiled its second Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
The bank’s Group Head W Initiative, Ayona Trimnell, said: “Access Bank has been a leading advocate for women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria and this is the key motivation for the ‘W’ Initiative, which caters to the women economy, particularly in the areas of capacity building and creating networking opportunities for women.
“We launched the Pitch-a-ton initiative last year in line with our value proposition as the number one bank of choice for women in Nigeria, and we got a tremendous amount of applications with innovative business ideas. This year we want to do more and we want to reach out to more female entrepreneurs not just in Nigeria but across Africa.
“As a responsible financial institution with huge presence in other African countries, we want to give the same opportunity to other female entrepreneurs in Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia as well as Sierra Leone, Gambia and Congo to participate in the programme.’’
The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa will provide up to N9 million grant and a capacity building opportunity aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs. It is a three-month programme, incorporating pitching sessions and eightweeks of mini-MBA training, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Interested persons from Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Rwanda as well as with extension to Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Congo who meet the criteria are required to fill an online application. The 500 candidates selected from this pool will then send in a 60-second video pitch, which will be screened by a credible panel of business experts to select 50 finalists.