ELOY’s Sustainable Empowerment Programme Graduates 50 Women in SME, Gives 10  Business Grants

Mary Nnah

The Business Shower by the ELOY Awards Foundation was held in five different states: Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano and Abia states from the 23rd of June to the 7th of July, 2022 with almost 2000 registered participants and over 220,000 reach.

The event held to support new business owners on their journey to building a sustainable business across Nigeria, was an avenue for these women to gain access to some entrepreneurial training from experienced businessmen and women, who armed them with tools and information to help them grow their businesses successfully.

Following the huge success of the event, Phase two of the event began in August 2022, when ELOY Awards Foundation enrolled 50 women who are small business owners in the three months ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Program (SEP).

These small business owners were mentored for three months and had access to information on affordable finance, access to entrepreneurial training from experienced businessmen and women, who mentored and armed them with tools and information to help them grow their businesses successfully every month, and 10 of these women were given the grant to assist them in their businesses. Some of our mentors included Femi Olayebi, Adanne Uche, Ommo Clark, Tayo Afolabi, Madame Merola, Ebun Feludu, Yasmin Obadaki, Toyin Onigbanjo, Princess Kelechi, Trish O and Tewa Onasanya.

The focus and aim of the sustainable empowerment programme (SEP), was to expose these business owners to important business skills, networking, and the Eloy Foundation Business Toolkit, which contains a collection of business survival information, grants and affordable loans to be executed through FirstBank’ FirstGem 9% Loan Scheme created for female-owned MSMEs and the SMEConnect Initiative.

The programme rounded up with the graduation ceremony in November 2022 and 10 business owners were awarded grants to sustain their businesses. Also, one of the beneficiaries was awarded with the ELOY Award for the businesswoman on the ELOY Sustainable Empowerment Program Award.

Following the huge success of the event, all 50 women are now a part of the ELOY Foundation Network 2022. Where these women continue to get access to business information, training, and continued support to grow their businesses.

The ELOY Awards Foundation aims to sustain women’s empowerment through access to affordable finance, entrepreneurial training, mentoring, networking opportunities and more.
The foundation is about empowering and challenging thousands of women to be more and do more by providing access to resources, business skills and tools for them to be able to grow, transform and sustain their businesses, which will in turn benefit their families and the community at large.