By IJEOMA UKAZU
Globally, women are key contributors to the development of any country. In Nigeria, 2021 World Bank data says women make up 49.3 percent of the total population.
Despite their population and economic strength, women face a lot of barriers such as; exclusion in accessing land, capital, and leadership opportunities among others. These barriers put a strain on women’s economic growth and further hinder their prosperity.
According to a journal, Science Direct, increasing the empowerment of women is a major human right and development goal (Gates, 2014; UN General Assembly, 2014), but progress in women’s empowerment lags behind development goals in other domains, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations, 2015). In addition to its intrinsic human rights value, the journal says, empowering women can result in benefits for societies at large.
A 2019 study by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria points out that to boost women’s financial inclusion, there should be a shift beyond product innovation to address the underlying drivers of gender gaps using more systematic efforts to address women’s income through economic empowerment.
To bridge this gap and improve women’s economic power, Nestlé Nigeria through its rural women empowerment program tagged: “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria project” is helping rural women retailers within its value chain scale up their businesses to increase household income.
The first phase of the program was launched in 2021 in Abuja with selected 50 women from three districts in Abuja namely; Kubwa, Nyanya, and Gwagwalada then moved to the South West and added an additional 50 beneficiaries, selected from the axis of Oshogbo, Ede, and Ilesha in Osun State. Earlier this year, the third phase moved to Nsukka and Obolo-Afor, both in Enugu State, South East where an additional 50 women retailers were reached.
The train later moved to Port Harcourt, South-South Nigeria where 50 additional women were empowered with a target to improve their standard of living. These beneficiaries were all selected from Nestlé’s value chain and were inducted into the program at a ceremony that included several training sessions. This brought the total number of beneficiaries in the program so far to 200.
For Nestlé, the “Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria project by Nestlé” is designed to equip female distributors at the end of the pyramid to scale up to three times the size of their existing business over 3 months and to sustain the new level.
Speaking on Nestlé’s contributions to empowering women within her value chain, Mr. Khaled Ramadan, Commercial Manager for Nestlé Nigeria, said, “At Nestlé, we believe that by contributing to the health and wellbeing of our communities, we create shared value for all stakeholders while contributing to the growth of our business.
“Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria project” is our way of improving the livelihoods of women in rural areas by helping them scale their businesses to three times their current volume within three months. Our ambition is to empower 300 of these women who are retailers within our distribution channel.”
“We have received very positive feedback from the beneficiaries of the program who are based in the suburbs of Abuja, Osogbo, Enugu and now in Port Harcourt as these women are reporting faster turnovers and increased revenue as well as stronger visibility of their business outlets within their locations. We are therefore confident that our intervention through training, mentorship, and product grants is the right mix for success.
“By improving the household incomes of the rural women, Nestlé is helping to improve their access to adequate nutrition, good healthcare, and good quality education for their families.”
The beneficiaries of the “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria project” receive grants by way of Nestlé products valued at 300 percent of their current monthly sales.
They also participated in training and mentorship programs that equip them with the requisite skills to scale up and sustain their businesses.
These programs were delivered by the implementation partner, FDConsults, and also work with each retailer over three months post-training to help them succeed.
To ensure a smooth follow-up by each beneficiary retailer, Nestlé Nigeria connected each individual to a one-on-one mentor for guidance and consistent support.
The Program Impact
Speaking on the outcome of the program so far, Mr. Phranklin Audu, Lead Trainer & Head of Partnerships at FDConsults, said, “It is a delight for me to see the progress already made by the beneficiaries of “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria project.”
“The reports of an increase in turnover and profit are very encouraging following the successful implementation of the first and second phases, I am happy that more women are joining the program.
“FDConsults is privileged to be a part of this success story and remains focused on helping each beneficiary attain her highest potential. I encourage each participant here today to take full advantage of this unique opportunity to grow her business. FDConsults has a track record of helping rural dwellers access information and skills to improve their standards of living.”
While in Port Harcourt, Audu extols the project as an amazing initiative due to its progress and growth recorded by the women in the several states where the project is already ongoing.
He said, “We are talking about visible growth. Grade-C retailers are moving up the distribution ladder and more importantly, these women are doing more sales turnovers thereby earning higher incomes for themselves. We must commend the visioners of this project and the entire project team for staying true to cause”.
The Beneficiaries Extols Nestlé
An excited beneficiary from Obolo-Afor in Enugu State, Mrs. Peace Eze said “I am very happy to have been selected to benefit from this program. I am going home with some good news.
“With what we were taught by Nestlé and trainers, I now have the knowledge to support my business to grow and with the help of the goods that Nestlé has given us. I have everything I need to make my business succeed. I thank Nestlé for this important initiative, it will help all the women benefiting from the program a lot.”
Another beneficiary from Port Harcourt, Joyce Nwaiwo expressed her gratitude to Nestlé saying “I feel so happy about this opportunity. I still cannot believe that this is true, because it is just like a dream. I want to say a big thank you to Nestlé.”
In an interview with The DailyNewswave, Chioma Kanu, Executive Director, of Mothers And Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre) said women’s empowerment is pertinent to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals 2- No Hunger.
MAMA Centre, is a non-governmental organization that works with women, girls, and children, to advocate for their health, education, and political and socio-economic rights.
Kanu said, “It is pertinent to address SDG 2, by tackling inequalities and empowering women and girls. The cliché “educate a girl, educate a nation” is still very relevant in today’s context.
“An educated mother understands the importance of providing adequate nutrition to her children. She understands what hygiene is all about in her household. She cannot allow her children to drop out of school or not to have formal education.”
However, She said, where women are deprived of opportunities, it becomes very difficult to do away with poverty and hunger.
The Executive Director of the Centre said initiatives that empower Nigerian women should be encouraged across board as this will give them earning power considering the current economic situation Nigerians are faced with. She called on organizations to key into projects that seek to end poverty and hunger through investing in the lives of women.