African Women in Leadership Organisation  (AWLO) in partnership with Justina Ovat Foundation is set to create empowerment opportunities for 500 women in the Niger-Delta Region and Others.

While women make up a large population of the Nation, women’s economic participation is comparably low. A World bank’s 2019 research, shows that Nigerian women’s under-participation in economic activities stems from cultural factors, namely; gender-specific roles. The WEF’s 2018 gender-gap report also corroborates that the gender pay gap is a result of women’s considerable participation in unpaid tasks. Overall, there is an incidence of 77.1% gap in women’s economic participation and opportunities, making it the area with the highest gender-gap incidence followed by Political participation.

The African Women in Leadership Organisation’s (AWLO) participation in the 2018 UN Women’s empowerment principles forum, saw it adopting resolutions to form its 2019 scope of work with the theme- Empowered for Sustainability. Thus, channeling the forum’s resolutions for long-lasting empowerment solutions.

The AWLO-500 Capacity-building Workshop, as a result, is an effective economic empowerment initiative with the goal of keying women into opportunities; for upscaling their skills to gain empowerment in areas of decision-making, enterprise building and financial asset control.

The workshop targets 500 women and will be a prerequisite for post-workshop opportunities namely; cooperative membership, access to resourceful business community, routine business mentorship, ready-market opportunities, and funding.

AWLO is collaborating with the Justina Ovat Foundation to deliver the workshop in Cross River State. Justina Ovat Foundation is a not-for-profit Entrepreneurship, Employability and Enterprise Development organization that delivers innovative, high-quality solutions for the development and growth of people who are independent of government but are core contributors to the commonwealth of their communities.

Dr. Elisha Attai; the Founder of African Women in Leadership Organisation noted that the backbone of the organization is “to harness the synergies of alliance and create an empowering platform for women”. Hence the end goal of the workshop is to build an industrious community of women that will maximize the leverage of AWLO to get funding, assets, mentorship, and e-marketplace for their businesses. This he said will be achieved via post-workshop activities, and will help AWLO achieve its vision of a continent with women who are home and nation builders with equal access and opportunities.

He conveyed the backing of the management, while commending the AWLO General Manager; Ms. Ekemini Akpakpan; for developing the initiative, and being an organizational builder, saying“She has gone a step further to build the right partnerships, and we are currently in the middle of plans to launch the most impactful economic empowerment experience for women”. According to him, the programme first aims at creating a beneficial membership experience for AWLO Members targeting a minimum of 200 AWLO members in Nigeria.

The Founder of the Justina Ovat Foundation; Mrs. Justina Ovat, who is passionate about Human capital Development and the project, said, “ Human capital development is at the core of JO Foundation. We are hinged on impacting and connecting with a new generation of smart, ambitious African women and it is a delight to be hosting the AWLO-500 capacity building workshop in collaboration with the African Women in Leadership Organization, come December.“

The AWLO-500 Capacity building workshop holds on 14^th December 2019 at Tinapa Calabar for women who own small businesses, need access to subsidized loans, grants and the necessary tools to grow their business. It is also for women who have skills to transform into businesses, want to start businesses, or are in paid employment but want a side hustle. There will be post-workshop opportunities for women in production businesses. These are women in Agri-businesses, merchandize production and sales, Craftwork, Textile & Fashion, Product manufacturing, and others.

The one-day workshop will be providing practical business lessons in the areas of business set-up and growth, finances, leadership, and management. Onsite activities include Exhibitions, Skills Acquisition Booths, Business Set-up Unit, Business Resource Corner, Free Cooperative Registration, Networking Lunch, and others.

The AWLO-500 Registration portal opens on October 14th, 2019 via www.awlo.org/500. More details coming soon. AWLO Induction Dinner for new members also holds the following day – 15^th December 2019 at Transcorp Hilton Calabar.