ANWBN Summit 2021: Expanding Possibilities for Women

ANWBN Summit 2021: Expanding Possibilities for Women

Mary Nnah

Top on the agenda at the Nigeria Women in Business Network (ANWBN) 2021 National Summit will be to expand business possibilities for women and also to look at how they can scale up their businesses and thrive in the times of post COVID.

As a women’s group, ANWBN feels that with regard to the adverse effects of the post-COVID-19, there was an urgent need for women to expand their possibilities in various fields.

“We are looking at ways to beat competition, position ourselves in the proper places and come to the table when decisions are taken on us so that we will be part of those decisions”, Otunba Gbemisola Oduntan, Chairperson ANWBN 2021 Summit, said while addressing journalists on the forthcoming summit.

Rightly themed, “Expanding Possibilities” this year’s summit, scheduled to hold on October 27 to 28 will look at ways to position women to take advantage of opportunities that exist in businesses and how best to stem the impact of COVID-19 in their businesses.

“During this summit, we will give out incentives to start-ups. We will be looking at icon women that have done very well in their spaces. We will give women tips on how to succeed in the political space. We would also give women a lot of tips on how to be a part of the political system”, Oduntan said.

Speaking further on the summit’s efforts in stemming the negative effects of COVID-19 on businesses, she said, “During the summit we will be looking at how to remain resilient in the post COVID era. We will take training and have people talk to us on how we overcome and how we can cushion the effects of COVID.

“We have issues around security, road network, power, and gender-inequality. It is an advocacy we are doing and we know this will impact women as a whole and make us get better post COVID-19.”

“For every quarter, we have a conference on different things that pertains to pushing our agenda forward. We are trying to go down to even the informal sector and we want them all to be financially included in business.

“A lot of market women keep their money in their houses because they don’t trust the financial institutions. So, we are trying to see how we can educate them and give them the necessary information and get them into the financial space so they can benefit from what is going on.

“We are pushing because we want the government to do something. Women are special breeds. During the hit of COVID-19, some women spent all they had as capital to feed their homes. A man won’t do that. If a man has N500, he prefers going out in the evening to drink with his friends but a woman would think of what her children will eat the next moment.

“So we believe that women are not getting enough attention; we not given the attention we deserve and we are not being taken care of enough, despite all what we bring to the table”, Oduntan, who is also the Deputy President, South of Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprise, (NASME), noted further.

ANWBN is a coalition of 52 organisations that exists to enhance the economic status of women so as to ensure peaceful cohabitation, credible job creation.

The coalition’s advocacy tool, the Women’s National Business Agenda (WNBA) addresses the problems faced by female entrepreneurs across the country and identifies five priority issues which include access to credit, gender inequality, insecurity, electricity and poor infrastructure especially poor and dilapidated roads.

Oduntan added that as a coalition, the network will use its power to make sure that the advocacy it is pushing for women to make the situation better and bring about ease of doing business for women is a reality.

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