Wema Bank launches MOWA-SARA accelerator programme

Published

4 weeks ago

October 5, 2024

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…Partners Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to empower 500,000 women.

Wema Bank, Nigeria’s most innovative bank and pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, through its women-focused proposition, SARA by Wema, has partnered with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to launch MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme, an initiative aimed at empowering 500,000 women across Nigeria with vocational and business management skills.

SARA by Wema is Wema Bank’s women-focused proposition established with the goal of promoting gender inclusion and equality by empowering women with tailored resources, opportunities and solutions essential to enable them thrive personally and professionally.

Through SARA, Wema Bank continues to empower thousands of women across Nigeria with access to finance and financial support, access to market, networking opportunities, affordable to free healthcare and a host of other benefits curated specifically for women; partnering with reputable brands and institutions where ideal to proliferate impact.

The newly inaugurated MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme is one of these such partnerships which is positioned to transform the lives of women across the country for the best.

MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme is set to run for 24 months and will cover 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The focus will be on two areas: vocational skills and business management skills with a schedule encompassing two days of soft skills and business management skills, followed by two days of vocational training.

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The final day will be dedicated to an assessment and evaluation session. For vocational skills, the programme will target three main aspects which include food processing, fashion designing and hairdressing.

The 5-day in-person training session will be organised into eight cohorts with the initial pilot phase starting in Anambra and spaning to Ekiti and Kano.

This capacity building and women empowerment programme will equip more Nigerian women to earn revenue, become economically active, contribute to national development and will ultimately serve to further bridge the gap in gender inclusion.

Tunde Mabawonku, Wema Bank’s Executive Director of Retail and Digital, expressed confidence in the programme’s potential for empowering women to thrive.

According to her, “Nigeria’s ever-evolving macroeconomic landscape calls for an acutely intentional approach to providing tailored solutions and opportunities to empower our people, especially the women.

“At Wema Bank, we understand this need as captured in our mission of empowering lives through innovation and we are very intentional about tailoring our empowerment efforts to the needs of our diverse customer demographics.

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“This commitment is evident in our solutions, partnerships, products, initiatives, and propositions; one of which is SARA by Wema. Recognising the need for tailored solutions that help women thrive, we launched SARA in 2019 as a dedicated avenue for reaching out to women across Nigeria, empowering them with unique solutions tailored to their needs even beyond banking, and providing them with the support they need to maximise their potential.

“This is the basis of our work through SARA, and this is what has informed the launch of MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme. Our goal is to help women navigate the challenging economic terrain by providing them with skills for self-employment, resources for productivity and support for success”.

“I encourage every woman out there who is willing to learn a skill with potential for income generation, to register for the MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme. We also have grants reserved for this programme so it’s a total package designed to help these women become economically active.

“Inclusion runs deep for us so we have curated this programme such that women of various ages from any part of the country can participate and reap the benefits of this programme. To every woman out there, I also take this opportunity to invite you to join the SARA Community, our community for women who want better. There are so many opportunities rooted in the SARA and every woman can tap into this extensive range of benefits as a SARA Woman”, Mabawonku said.

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The Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, added, “I believe that if we empower the women and they start making money, a lot of prevalent challenges faced by women as a result of gender inequality may be averted. This partnership is beyond the Federal Ministry of Women Affair, it extends to the Nigerian Women Affairs.

“Our goal is to ensure the sustainability of all women empowerment initiatives, which is why we are bringing in the private sector. On this project, Wema Bank is evidently ready to fly and we are committed to flying together to achieve our objectives”.

MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme was launched at a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony which held on Monday, September 30, 2024 at the Ministry of Women Affairs Office in Abuja.

JUST IN: NSIB locates wreckage of crashed helicopter in Port Harcourt

Published

7 hours ago

October 31, 2024

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The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) says its search and recovery teams have successfully located the wreckage of the ditched Sikorsky SK76 helicopter.

In a statement on Thursday, Bimbo Olawumi Oladeji, NSIB’s director of public affairs and family assistance, said the wreckage was identified during recovery dives conducted on Wednesday night.

Details later…

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Finally, Joseph Wayas, ex-senate president, to be buried November 30 — three years after his death

Published

8 hours ago

October 31, 2024

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November 30 has been fixed for the burial of former Senate President Joseph Wayas, who died three years ago.

Wayas, who served as senate president from October 1, 1979, to December 31, 1983, died on November 30, 2021, at a London hospital after a protracted illness. He was 80 years old.

On July 10, his remains arrived in Nigeria after several controversies that followed the repatriation of his corpse.

Speaking on Thursday at a press briefing in Calabar, the capital of Cross River, Dorn-Cklaimz Enamhe, secretary of the central planning committee for Wayas’ burial, thanked Bassey Otu, governor of the state, and other individuals for repatriating Wayas’ body.

Enamhe noted that the committee, in collaboration with other authorities in Nigeria and the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom (UK), worked together to ascertain the authenticity of the body.

He also appreciated the media for constantly reminding the nation that the body of the former senate president was yet to be buried.

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“Unfortunately, the body has been kept this long due to issues and disagreement among members of his family,” he said.

“We had to wait for these issues to be resolved, and as of today, they have been resolved; that is why we are going ahead with the burial.”

Nsa Gil, the chief press secretary to the governor of Cross River, added that the funeral would be held at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar and later at the deceased’s hometown in Bassang, Obanliku LGA.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio and many other dignitaries are expected to attend the burial.

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UPDATED: Withdraw tax reform bills, NEC tells Tinubu

Published

9 hours ago

October 31, 2024

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The national economic council (NEC) has asked President Bola Tinubu to withdraw the tax reform bills from the national assembly to give room for consultations.

The council made the recommendation after its meeting on Thursday.

Speaking to state house correspondents after the meeting, Seyi Makinde, Oyo state governor, said the council members agreed that it was necessary to allow for consensus building and understanding of the bill among Nigerians.

“NEC today took a presentation from the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms. Their main focus is fair taxation, responsible borrowing and sustainable spending,” Makinde said.

He said the council acknowledged the country’s underperformance across all indices related to major revenue sources, including the tax-to-GDP ratio and other indicators.

“So after extensive deliberation, NEC noted the need for sufficient alignment between and amongst the stakeholders for the proposed reforms,” he added.

“So, Council therefore recommend the need to withdraw the bill currently before the National Assembly on tax reforms so that we can have wider consultations and also build consensus around these reforms for the benefit of the entire country, and also to give people…for them to know the vision and where we are moving the country in terms of a tax reform, because there’s really a lot of miscommunication, misinformation.

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“So, the bill will draw from the National Assembly and then there will be consultations afterwards.”

On October 3, President Bola Tinubu had asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.

The proposed laws include the Nigeria tax bill, tax administration bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.

Reacting to the development, the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF), representing 19 northern states, collectively opposed the proposed bills, following a joint meeting with the northern traditional rulers council at the Kaduna government house on October 28.

The governors asked the national assembly to reject any legislation that may harm the region’s interests, calling for equitable and fair implementation of national policies and programmes to prevent marginalisation of any geopolitical zone.

The presidency had assured the Northern governors that the recently proposed tax laws will not increase the number of taxes.

In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said the proposed laws were not proposed by Tinubu to disadvantage any part of the country as they were designed to improve lives of Nigerians and optimise existing tax frameworks.

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He said the proposed reforms are intended to reduce the inefficiencies.

Onanuga said the current tax administration lacks coordination among federal, state, and local tax authorities, and often results in overlapping responsibilities, confusion, and inefficiency.