Access Bank restated commitment to support small businesses, entrepreneurs 

…Rewards winners with cash prices  at W Initiative’s Womenpreneur Pitch-A-THON initiative

Access Bank, has stated that restated its commitment to continue to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) especially female entrepreneurs to boost their contributions to nation’s prosperity and wealth creation.
 
At the bank’s Grand Finale of W Initiative’s Womenpreneur Pitch-A-THON Season four in held in Lagos at the weekend where female entrepreneurs who graduated from the Bank’s initiative, called ‘Womenpreneur Pitch-A-THON’ were rewarded with prices ranging from N500,000 to N5 million, the managing director/chief executive officer ofAccess Bank, Roosevelt      Ogbonna said because SMEs are the engine room of the nation’s economy, the bank would continue to raise its stake in small businesses supports to enable these entrepreneurs grow and become captains of industries.

Besides, the bank unveiled the new W Branded Debit cardspecifically target at women at the event.
   
According to him, the initiative was introduced as part of the bank’s mandate to empower female entrepreneurs with financial and business skills, noting  that the bank has being doing this since the last four years.  
 
He said: “As an institution, it is not about making money but making impact in the nation. The small and medium enterprises are the engine room of the economy and as the largest bank in the market and  the largest bank in Africa by customer base, if we truly need to make an impact in the lives of the communities we serve, we have to start by making an impact on the small and medium scale businesses. 
 
“This is with the understanding that they are the engine room for growth and will push throughGDP growth across many markets.  Interestingly, across the world, a good 90 percent of SMEs control economic activity despite not being the largest businesses and they are also the largest employers of labor, absorbing about 60 percent. 
 
He added: ” About 43 per cent of them are owned by women. So, wecannot leave women out of the conversation, while 67 per cent of them are ownedby youths.”
   
Earlier, Chairman, Access Bank, Dr.Ajoritsedere Awosika said: “The Access Bank card for women is an innovation and the innovation is linked with identity and the identity is linked with women.
 
“For us in Access bank, women are indeed very special; women contribute a great deal to our going forward and tothe expansion of the business in banking,” she said.
 
Introducing the W Branded Debit Card, Group head, Marketing and Communications, Access Bank, Chioma Afe said: The W card is about empowering women, adding that a survey was done on how women want to be differentiated, called and how we want to stand out in the market; that was how the idea around the female differentiated debit card was born.”