By Azeez Disu

The joy on the faces of some of the recently empowered women knows no bounds, their lives have been transformed. Not only do they have access to start a retail business with the supply of the products made available to them as grants but they also have access to quality mentorship and they are assured of a smooth business future.

In this clime, one of the beneficiaries said such a gesture is rare. Mainly most organizations embark on empowering women initiatives with the intention of just being seen as a good corporate citizens through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and that is all, but only a few have been able to follow it through, following up and monitoring the progress of those empowered and see further areas they could be supported. 

However, Nestlé Nigeria PLC through some of its projects is seeing to that. One of such laudable recent initiatives was the empowerment of rural Women in the country, with aim of scaling up their retail businesses.

”I am beyond happy and I do not know how to express myself for being one of the 50 women chosen to participate in this empowerment by Nestlé. The free goods and training we received today will be particularly helpful in taking my business to the next level. I thank Nestlé for everything they have done for me and my family,” one of the beneficiaries of the “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria” project, Mrs. Clementina Irandi disclosed.

The project is one of the Company’s Creating Shared Value (CSV) initiatives to contribute toward building thriving communities by improving livelihoods. Launched in August 2021, the project is also aimed at helping rural women retailers within the company’s value chain scale up their businesses to increase their household incomes and 300 women are expected to be empowered across states and regions of the country.

Nestlé is basically helping women to scale up their retail businesses through training, mentorship, and grants in form of Nestlé products.

Mentorship in business is critical to survival; it helps the mentees to avoid some mistakes which might cause revenue loss or other challenges. Beyond training, implementing what has been learned is also challenging for all gender including women. Balancing personal life and career or work is another challenge for most women despite their multitasking qualities but the system of mentoring, training, and retraining from the stables of Nestlé does the magic for the empowered women to stay focused on their business goals and keenly watch their business grow.

According to UN Women, “Empowering women in the economy and closing gender gaps in the world of work is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5, to achieve gender equality, and Goal 8, to promote full and productive employment and decent work for all; also Goal 1 on ending poverty, Goal 2 on food security, Goal 3 on ensuring health and Goal 10 on reducing inequalities.”

Furthermore, it revealed that “Women are less likely to be entrepreneurs and face more disadvantages starting businesses: In 40% of economies, women’s early-stage entrepreneurial activity is half or less than half of that of men’s.”

Nestlé Nigeria as part of its sustainability drive and contribution to society wants empowered women to start to live a better life which includes having good meals, shelter, and quality education for their children.

The gesture by the brand, and industry watchers applauded the initiative and pointed out that would close the poverty gap considering that women constitute 60% of the poorest people in Nigeria. Out of 87 million people living in extreme poverty, 62 million are women.

Noteworthy, in the first phase of the “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria” project the company will provide three times the monthly turnover of each of the 50 selected female retailers in form of Nestlé products across the regions in the country.

Speaking at the launch of the project, Nestlé Nigeria’s Commercial Manager, Khaled Ramadan said: “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria” is aimed at making significant contributions to the well-being of the 50 retailers selected in this first phase, who already have a business relationship with Nestlé. We are confident that the support we will be provided through training, mentorship, and grants will go a long way toward helping them improve their standards of living by increasing their sales outputs. We are excited to see the start of the implementation of this first phase of the project and look forward to the eventual scale-up to reach more women across Nigeria.”

He added, “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria is designed to help the selected retailers scale up their businesses and sustain the new level of up to three times the size of their existing business. Training will be provided by our implementation partners with a track record of helping rural dwellers access information and skills to improve their standards of living. In addition, the retailers will be linked to one on one mentors for additional guidance and consistent support to ensure their success.”

Speaking in the same vein, Phranklin Audu, Lead Trainer & Head of Partnerships at Straplan Advisory Ltd, said, “For Nestle, the overarching goal is to ensure that these 50 selected participants can triple their income and ultimately improve their livelihoods. Selected from 3 area districts in Abuja- Kubwa, Nyanya, and Gwagwalada, the rural traders will undergo a period of business coaching and mentoring to help them strengthen their business process in a bid to scale their businesses. We commend Nestlé for such a laudable project and hope the project is sustained and replicated across other states and regions of the country.

On her part, Mrs. Victoria Uwadoka of the Corporate Communications Nestle explained that “Nestle Nigeria expects that the business owners will leverage the improvement to better their standards of living, including food, shelter and the education of their children.’’

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Peace Eze, from Obolo-Afor in Enugu State, said “I am very happy to have been selected to benefit from this programme. I am going home with good news.

 With what we were taught today, I now have the knowledge to support my business to grow. With the help of the goods that Nestlé is also giving to 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 Programme a lot.”

In FCT, one of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Clementina Irandi, who spoke on behalf of other beneficiaries, appreciated the company for selecting women to participate in the empowerment programme.

In her words, “The free goods and training we received today will be particularly helpful in taking our businesses to the next level. We commend Nestle for such a laudable project and hope the project is sustained and replicated across other states and regions of the country.’’