Sterling Bank Powers ‘Mums in Business’ Conference

Bennett Oghifo

One-woman proposition, a product of Sterling Bank, tailored specifically for women, is partnering with Motherhood In-Style magazine in its maiden edition of a two-day event tagged: Mums in Business Fair and Conference holding in Lagos.

The organisers of the event stated this at a press conference held at Sterling Bank’s head office in Lagos.

In her welcome address, Head of Communications, Sterling Bank, Tomi Ajakaiye, said Mums in Business was a platform that brings together successful women in business and work spaces such as fashion, law, beauty and health, among others.

She said the value proposition of One-Woman comprised of an array of different value-added offerings to meet financial, business and personal needs of women in Nigeria and to foster support by providing platforms for women to support other women.

Ajakaiye listed some of the offerings to include: Sterling Maternal Medical Finance (SMMF) available to women for peculiar medical treatments like fibroid, customized debit cards with a bold feminine touch that would provide cardholders access to discounts for spas, makeover services, and furniture/household items at select outlets, discounts on lending rates of all  existing retail loan products (e.g. personal loan, asset acquisition loan, MSME loans,) for women and Womenpreneurship and capacity building programme for young women.

Others are internship opportunities and job shadowing schemes for young women with access to the MSME academy for free or at a discount.

Also speaking, Chief Legal Counsel for Sterling Bank, Mrs. Justina Lewa,said it had become imperative for women to support women “because when a woman is empowered, she will, in turn, empower everything around her.”

She also noted that “if a woman contributes to her home, her husband won’t take her for granted and it will further enhance the love between them.”

In her contribution, Publisher and Editor of Motherhood In-Style Magazine and convener of the Mums in Business Fair and Conference, Mrs. Pauline Rumm, said: “We realised that there is need for women to be empowered so that they can be financially independent.”

She said they have also identified that “women are interested in wealth accumulation in order to support their husbands and also for them to have a say in their own finances, adding that even when women are employed, they still want to delve into other businesses to support themselves.

“We also realised that running a successful business and still trying to keep a home at the same time in the present economic environment would be very hard, so we decided to bring together successful women entrepreneurs like Tara Fela Durotoye, owner of the Nigerian make-up line, House of Tara; Emem Isong, founder of Royal Arts Academy, a film production company, to tell their stories and share their experiences with the younger women who are trying to walk their paths”.

The other speakers are: Adenike Ogunlesi, Abimbola Balogun

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