Nume Ekeghe
Access Bank Plc has trained internally displaced persons (IDPs), vulnerable youths and migrants including victims of insurgency in the Bogije community at the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State.
The initiative was done in partnership with the Web of Hearts Foundation.
The bank said the intervention was part of its commitment to human emancipation while contributing to economic development in Nigeria through its skill empowerment program coordinated by the Bank’s Digitalised and Centralised Operations Group.
More than 100 people were trained in various creative activities such as fashion designing, catering, hairdressing among others. Beneficiaries were also taken through lessons on financial literacy, counselling and customer services to facilitate their successful head start in business. Similarly, sessions were organised to give psycho-social support for traumatised victims for improved mental health.
Speaking at the training, the Group Head, Digitalised and Centralised Operations, Access Bank, Mrs. Sandra Okoli said the Group embarked on the project as a way of alleviating the burdens of communities locked out of development and were marginalised.
Okoli said: “At Access Bank, we place service to the community at the core of our business. We will continue to add our efforts to that of other stakeholders in the fight to eradicate poverty and empower people to build sustainable businesses, create employment opportunities and build a sustainable economy for the nation.”
On her part, the Founder and CEO of Web of Heart Foundation Mrs. Bose Aggrey, while commending the bank for taking the initiative said: “We are quite excited and elated that Access Bank has given a helping hand to the helpless, hopeless and despondent in the society.
“The beneficiaries today will be taking home equipment to start up and sustain their businesses. With this, they will get financial freedom and be able to fend for themselves and their families as well as impact lives in the society.”
Access Bank donated several industrial gas cookers, sewing machines, gas cylinders, hair dressing equipment to the beneficiaries of the skill empowerment program. Food items were also donated to the foundation which provided shelter for resettlement of migrants, IDPs and vulnerable youths.
