Economic Empowerment for Women

The workshop continues, the request for business lending also increased. Our observation is that people primary interest is accessing the business lending. So they will attend the workshop sessions and immediately expect to access loan for their business. This is totally against our  present lending policy as we need to get to know more about the business and the person that runs it. We do this through ONE-ON-ONE business mentoring with those who have attended our financial capability workshop.

We are therefore, going to review our lending policy to better serve our primary purpose of economic empowerment. We will be listening and working with our beneficiaries to make any changes necessary.

From strength to strength: Financial Capability Workshop Kick Off

As stated in our previous reports, a struggle for resources is one that many grass roots organizations face, including ESWA. To solve this looming problem, an organization needs to be resourceful, innovative and resilient.

Luckily, these are all characteristics which are embedded into our team here at ESWA. On that note, I am pleased to announce a collaboration with an up-and-coming publishing company called New Africa Comics (NAC). NAC has agreed to both help spread awareness of the issues facing our market women traders as well as to donate a portion of the funds from their sales to ESWA.

It is innovative collaborations like these which enable an organization like ESWA to continue with the work that we do and fuels us to strive to do more. We will report more on this collaboration as it progresses – watch this space……. 

Common challenges with self-help grassroot charity like ESWA is accessing funds, technology to sustain and develop projects. ESWA is not isolated from these challenges. We have gone too far to turn back. Therefore; the search for compatible partners continues.

Our doors are open wide. We recently accepted a meeting with private food manufacture cooperation to start negotiation on income generation for our women. If all side agrees, there will be a real chance to continue our E-wise program (Empowering Women into Sustainable Earnings). This program is our main focus to bring about Economic Empowerment for Women in our community.

We are still in search for a training coordinator to join our development team in delivering financial capability education to all three governmental districts in Edo State.
Keep eye on this page for future project report.

Thanks to the networking events and community engagement activities carried out last year; our support network is growing fast, as supported by our website and social media analytics. In addition, our blog volunteers have also played a part in increasing our community engagement.

Edo State Women Association (ESWA) is using this momentum to approach compatible business partners to help kick start the E-WISE program. We are currently in talks with few companies in the third and private sectors, with the aim of forming a working partnership. For example, one of the companies we are in talks with is the non-profit organisation, who provide personal finance education and resources for women in the United States. Despite the difference in the location, there is a very similar objective ESWA wants to achieve in Edo State, Nigeria; as a result, we hope this and other organisations that share our vision can partner with us and provide the technical resources necessary to secure this project.

Furthermore, we are still searching for a training coordinator to join our development team and help deliver training to all three governmental districts in Edo State.