NBC empowers 300 women with trade assets

The Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, has empowered 300 women by providing them with trade assets to start up their businesses.

It a recent report, the initiative was in line with its 5by20 programme, which it said was its global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of five million women entrepreneurs across its value chain by 2020.

It said the women were drawn from different communities in Lagos state and empowered in partnership with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund.

The statement read in part, “The 300 women who are the first batch of the 1000 women targeted for the initiative were provided with trade assets including coolers, tables, umbrellas and Coca-Cola beverage products, having completed their training modules on financial literacy and business skills.”

The Managing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria, Mr Bhupendra Suri, while speaking at the event, advised the women to make the best use of the resources handed over to them by effectively deploying the skills and assets in the running of their businesses profitably and sustainably.

Suri, who was represented by the Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Coca-Cola, Ms Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, said the company recognised the socio-economic value that women brought to enterprise development and urged other corporate organisations to consider women empowerment as a business imperative.

He said, “We are as prosperous as the communities in which we operate. The shared prosperity we envision as a company will only add up when we commit resolutely to empowering people living around the communities where we operate.

‘We believe any investment in women particularly will trigger not only economic growth but foster sustainable development.”

The Executive Secretary, LSETF, Mr Akintunde Oyebode, added that the empowerment initiative was in line with the vision of the Lagos state government to create jobs, wealth opportunities and alleviate poverty among residents in the state.

Oyebode, who commended the beneficiaries for their tenacity and determination to improve their lots economically, urged them to judiciously put into use all the skills acquired as well as the resources mobilised for them.

He appreciated Coca-Cola and the NBC for their contribution in complementing government’s effort in the empowerment of women, saying such collaborations would ultimately help to reduce social problems and address the alarming rate of unemployment in Lagos State.