The MTN Foundation and the United Nations Women have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to empower 200 rural women in Kano and Cross River states.

The agreement was signed on Friday in Lagos under an initiative designed to provide women with business training, digital and financial inclusion, market access and processing facilities.

Under the partnership, processing hubs will be established in selected communities to help women move beyond subsistence production and earn more from finished products.

Women in Kano will receive support to process, package and sell rice, while those in Cross River will use a processing hub to convert cassava into products that can be supplied to manufacturers.

Speaking during the press briefing, the Chairman of MTN Foundation, Dr Mosun Belo-Olusoga, said empowering women could create wider economic and social benefits for their communities.

She said, “We often say, ‘Feed the women, feed the nation.’ Women remain important to the growth and development of every nation.

“When you empower a woman, you empower her community. When a woman thrives, her community also thrives.
“That is why we are passionate at MTN Foundation about ensuring that women have the resources they need to thrive. We understand the ripple effect their success has on society.”

Belo-Olusoga said philanthropic organisations must look beyond launching programmes and ensure that their interventions produce measurable and lasting results.

“Philanthropy must go beyond starting an intervention. We must ensure that the people receiving support can thrive.
“We must also follow through and measure the impact of our interventions. It is not enough to introduce a programme and walk away,” she added.

The Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, said the partnership formed part of the organisation’s efforts to promote gender equity and improve opportunities for women.

Sanya explained that the Foundation introduced the Y’ellopreneur Initiative to address some of the difficulties women face in accessing business training, funding and markets.

She said, “A few years ago, we thought it was important for us to intervene and help women with access to capacity, funding and markets because these are areas where female entrepreneurs struggle.

“Through the Foundation, we have been able to provide about N304m to 122 female entrepreneurs. Overall, we have built the capacity of more than 6,000 female entrepreneurs.”

Sanya added that the Foundation had also established a N1bn matching fund to support women entrepreneurs.

She said the new partnership with UN Women would extend the intervention to rural communities, where many women still operate at the subsistence level.

“We thought it was important to go further down the line. There are a lot of women in rural areas.

“We started thinking about what we could do for rural women, not just to hand them money and turn our backs on them, but to support them and build communities,” she said.

According to her, the programme’s impact will extend beyond its 200 direct beneficiaries because other women in the selected communities will be able to use the processing hubs.

“What is very interesting is that it is not just about the 200 women because, at the end of the day, we are creating an economy in those communities.

“Beyond those 200 women, there is an opportunity for thousands more women within those communities to use the processing plants that we will establish,” Sanya added.

She noted that men in the participating communities would also be engaged and encouraged to support the women.
The Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS at UN Women, Beatrice Eyong, said the project would help rural women participate in the growing digital economy.

Eyong said, “This project will bring rural women into the digital economy, which is very important because many of them struggle to access it.

“If nothing is done, these women will be left out of what is becoming our future. Development can never be effective when some people are excluded.”

She said women needed access to finance, business training, information and markets to generate income and make independent economic choices.

“Poverty is not only about lacking money. Poverty also means lacking the opportunity and resources to choose,” she added.

Eyong maintained that Nigeria could not achieve its economic ambitions while women, who constitute about half of its population, remained excluded.

“Nigeria is blessed with qualified and competent women who deliver results. Nigeria cannot achieve the President’s vision of a $1tn economy if 50 per cent of its population, with all its capacity and energy, is left behind,” she said.

Also speaking,  Head of Internal Audit and Forensics at MoMo Payment Service Bank, Howard Edafe, said the initiative aligned with the company’s financial inclusion objectives.

Edafe, who represented the Acting Chief Executive Officer of MoMo PSB, Omolara Michael-Nwadu, pledged the organisation’s support for the implementation of the agreement.

“We are honoured to be part of this partnership and remain committed to supporting its implementation so that it achieves its objectives,” he said.