Access Bank announced at the weekend that it had reserved N100 billion to support more women entrepreneurs to improve their businesses.
It also said that this year, N11b of the sum had been given to women through its “W Initiative”, highlighting the need for all biases against women to be broken.
These revelations were made by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Herbert Nwigwe and Head, W Initiative, Abiodun Olubitan, at the Access Bank International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration held in Lagos.
Nwigwe noted that the bank had over the years, supported women through soft loans including IVF loans because it was against the various hindrances women faced in accessing loans.
He further said the bank had consistently kicked against the discrimination against women and had ensured that the female gender was well represented in its top management.
“For us in Access Bank, it is about 50-50, we have senior-level staff, more than 40 per cent of them are women. Our W Initiative goes all the way to the grassroots. It is for professional women, businesswomen, female youth corps members, university women and down to the grassroots.
“We also have a programme to help complete the family. A lot of time women who do not have a child are stigmatised, and at times the problem might sometimes be from the man” he added.
