The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe thursday restated the bank’s pledge to continue to support female entrepreneurs under is ‘W’ initiative.
Wigwe said while speaking at a breakfast session organised by the bank for its ‘W’ initiative customers that took place in Lagos.
The bank had unveiled the ‘W’ initiative to accelerate its support for women. In addition to financial inclusion, the initiative also focuses on women empowerment offerings. Some of these include mentoring, capacity building, maternal health services, access to loans and credit facilities.
Continuing, Wigwe said the event, among others, was organised to also gather feedback from its female customers who had keyed into the initiative.
“For us at Access Bank, supporting and empowering women is truly at the heart of our strategy and other things we have to do as far as sustainability is concerned.
“In the last couple of years, we have made significant progress as a bank and there have been several things that have been done in terms of supporting women.
“The ‘W’ initiative is supposed to inspire and empower women as well as female entrepreneurs. When we started doing it, some people thought it was a joke.
“But frankly speaking, we have not had even 0.1 per cent bad loan by supporting women. So, we have done several things and we have won several accolades and awards by supporting women in terms of how we give out loans to them, supporting them with technical skills and knowledge,†he said.
According to him, the bank was also considering organising a Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme for its customers under the platform.
“Sometimes it is not all about money, it also has to do with sharing information and capacity building.
“Someone once said there is no force greater than a woman who is determined to rise,†he said.
