FirstBank partners Eloy Foundation to support female-owned small businesses

The ELOY Foundation, in partnership with First Bank of Nigeria Limited is to support female entrepreneurs on their journey to building sustainable businesses under ELOY Foundation Business Shower project.

The support from FirstBank will be carried out through FirstGem, a loan scheme designed for female-owned or partnered MSMEs, and SMEConnect.

The partnership focuses on key sectors of the economy and is designed to have female entrepreneurs exposed to essential business skills, such as training, networking and the ELOY Foundation Business Toolkit, a compilation of business survival skills nuggets.

The business shower will avail businesses of a platform to pitch their ideas to win seed grants and join the ELOY Foundation Sustainable Empowerment Programme 2022. Participants will also be able to access the FirstGem single-digit loans where eligible.

The ELOY Foundation Business Shower will be held in five locations across the country. Kicking off in Lagos on 23 June, 2022, the train will move to Port Harcourt on 25 June 2022, then Abuja on 30 June, 2022. In July, Kano and Abia will host female business owners.

The ELOY Awards Foundation Business Showers will offer an avenue to sustain women empowerment by providing entrepreneurial training and mentorship from experienced businessmen and women, arming participants with tools and information to help them grow their businesses.

Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Folake Ani-Mumuney, said: “We commend ELOY Foundation for their efforts on this initiative as the continued strengthening and inclusiveness of female-driven business endeavours is essential to the growth of the national economy.

We are happy to partner with ELOY Foundation on its Business Shower. Together, we will drive the entrepreneurial viability of participants and expose them to business nuggets that will take their business to the next level.”

Founder of the ELOY Awards Foundation, Tewa Onasanya, said: “It is not just enough to talk about empowering business owners, it is very important to sustain empowerment by providing guidance towards their business progress and giving them access to different resources to help them continue to thrive. MSMEs are the backbone of any nation and there is a great need to sustain this chain of the economy. It is on this common ground that FirstBank has partnered with the ELOY Team to contribute meaningfully in empowering women to achieve fulfillment in their chosen business endeavours.”