Women inclusion tops as ANWBN holds 2021 summit

The proper representation of women in businesses and the sustainability of women enterprises amid the impact of the pandemic are some of the issues to be addressed at the 2021 Association of Nigeria Women Business Network (ANWBN) summit.

The ANWBN, a coalition of 52 organizations that exists to enhance the economic status of women so as to ensure peaceful co-habitation, credible job creation, will hold the second national summit in October 27th and 28th.

Themed ‘Expanding Possibilities,’ this year’s summit, will look at ways to position women to take advantage of opportunities that exist in businesses and how best to stem the impact of COVID-19 in their businesses.

Otunba Gbemisola Oduntan, chairperson, 2021 ANWBN summit said as a women coalition, they are looking at ways to position themselves in the proper places and be involved when decisions that concern women are taken.

Oduntan added that ANWBN will also be looking into how women can scale up their business and strive in the times of post COVID.

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Oduntan who is also the deputy president, South of Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprise, (NASME) said during this summit, ANWBN will be giving out incentives to startups and will celebrate women businesses that have done very well in their spaces.

She also mentioned that during the summit, women will be given tips on how to succeed in the political space.

“The coalition has a lot of associations under it, so the different associations are doing different things but what we will be addressing at the coalition is how to remain resilient post COVID.

The Coalition’s advocacy tool, the Women’s National Business Agenda (WNBA) addresses the problems faced by Female Entrepreneurs across the country and identifies five priority issues which include access to credit, gender inequality, insecurity, electricity and poor infrastructure especially poor and dilapidated roads.

She explained that as a coalition, the network will use its power to make sure that the advocacy it is pushing for women to make the situation better and bring about ease of doing business for women is a reality.

“For every quarter, we have a conference on different things that pertains to pushing our agenda forward. We are trying to go down to even the informal sector and we also want them to be financially included in business.

“A lot of market women keep their money in their houses because they don’t trust the financial institutions. So, we are trying to take steps to educate them and get them into the financial space,” she added.