For those with itching ears, the stories of the 30 tenacious Nigerian women recently celebrated by the Grooming Centre are worth hearing. They are real stories that are already changing the negative narratives and some stereotypes held by many over the years.
The women, who are aptly our daughters, our sisters, our wives, our mothers, and most importantly, our breadwinners, all braced the challenges, broke barriers and society limitations to standout in their various business enterprises, which were watered by Grooming Centre, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that focuses on enabling financial inclusion among market women and artisans.
They are truly outstanding from the 720,000 client members, which Grooming Centre has empowered and provided with 12 million credits since its inception in 2006.
From the loans they received from the Grooming Centre, which were a lifeline for them, they used them judiciously to scale their businesses, increase their incomes and improve their personal lives.
The testimonies abound from Mrs. Felicia Kenbi, a versatile businesswoman, Alice Ogbonna, a farmer, Blessing Idowu Fan, wholesaler based in Karu, Abuja, Olaitan Okubena, clothing store owner, Adetola Ariyo, fashion designer, Teni Abdullahi, millet seller, to Vivian Akponna, trader based in Woji, Port Harcourt, to the over 700,000 members.
To appreciate and reward these women, Grooming Centre rolled out drums amid pomp and pageantry on April 28, 2022 to celebrate all the women, starting with the first 30, who it described as tenacious women.
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The colorful event, which was held at the Grooming Centre Multi-purpose Hall in Ejigbo, Lagos, was attended by dignitaries across all walks of life, corporate organisations and lovers of women empowerment.
However, the highlight was the launch of a photobook by Grooming Centre entitled, ‘The stories of impact: Real Women, Real Lives, Real Growth’.
Explaining the rationale for the celebration and book launch, Dr. Godwin Nwabunka, CEO, Grooming Centre, noted that the centre has over 700,000 members and believes that each one of them deserves to be celebrated. While it would be impossible to tell all their stories, Grooming Centre, according to the CEO, chose to start by telling the stories of 30 women, who in their own everyday way, are visionaries chasing dreams, building businesses and changing lives- their own lives and those of others.
“They have different backgrounds and varying levels of formal education, but they are all business-savvy and hardworking. As you read their stories, you will find that they have overcome diverse challenges – business related or personal crises –in the course of building and sustaining their businesses. Their success in spite of that is worth celebrating, and providing them with resources to overcome challenges is the reason Grooming Centre was conceived in the first place”, he said.
Also speaking at the event anchored by Funke Treasure, Dr Akindele Akinsoye, CEO, Platform Capital, co-sponsors of the event eulogised women for whom he said the future belonged to.
“The work that Grooming Centre is doing is very important because by helping women build sustainable enterprises, tooling them, scaling them, skilling them, they are preparing them to build bigger businesses in the future, being that the micro segment is the conveyor belt of big corporations,” he said.
But at the review of the book, which was one of the highlights of the event, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, the reviewer of the book, who is also a Yale University Fellow and founder of the School Politics, Policy, and Governance (SPPG), lauded the phenomenal work that the organisation was doing, describing it as incredible.
Dr Ezekwesili, who joined virtually, as the day was her birthday and her family insisted that she spent it at Abuja, praised the quality of production of the book.
She did a methodical review of the book, telling each story with a passion that brings to life the experiences of the women in the book, with one of the stories relating to her as a young woman when her father passed on.
Describing the book as one that tells the story of development done at micro level with real impact, she said it made the title – Stories of Impact: Real Women, Real Lives, Real Growth – proper.
“It is a book that should claim a stand on the shelf of development books,” she said.
She pointed out some development issues that the book highlights including the fact that 60 percent of businesses by women do not have access to finance, a situation which hampers growth from the current case of two percent of growth annually.
She called for measurement and evaluation of the input of women, calling on the relevant policy makers to get copies of the book promising to send them to t people who should read, with an interest to publicise the good works of Grooming Centre and the wonderful stories of success.
An interesting segment of the event was a fireside chat on sustainable efforts for social impact – The Grooming impact, anchored by Lehlé Baldé, a media personality, where Grooming Centre’s CEO, Dr. Godwin Nwabunka and ler Jonathan-Ichaver, member, Grooming Centre, Governing Council, fielded questions bordering the genesis of the Centre and other related issues.
Anchoring a pledge drive for internally displaced people IDPs in the country, a representative of Grooming Centre’s partner, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative and former Sierra Leonean refugee, himself, Tibo Rogers, while calling for donations to the agency, recounted his own experience as a refugee in Ghana, and spoke about the difficult life of refugees.
Goodwill review messages were also done on the book by a few distinguished personalities including former Presidential Candidate for Kowa Party, Professor Remi Sonaiya, who lauded the sterling efforts of Grooming Centre.
Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Dr. Enefiok Essien, introduced a lot of humour in his brief review of the book that sent the entire hall reeling with laughter, but all the while pointing out the fine points in the book, while inspiring the audience.
The presentation of the book was the semi climax of the event, done with the women whose stories were told right on the podium. The presentation was done by Dr. Noel Ihebuzor, chairman, governing council, Grooming Centre, who led other dignitaries including; Godwin Nwabunka, CEO, Grooming Centre, Professor Shoneyan among others, to present the book formally to the general public.
The event witnessed a photo exhibition of the 30 women, as well as a generous reception where guests were treated to sustained offerings of assorted drinks and food menu, amid beautiful rendition by Dede Mabiaku, a former Fela protégé and his band.
Mabiaku, who hardly praise-sing people, took his time to explain why Godwin Nwabunka deserves to be celebrated, amid bringing development to his village.
Grooming Centre is an NGO founded in 2006 to address the perennial challenge of access to credit at the base of the pyramid.
Since its inception, the Centre has provided 12 million credits and currently empowers 720,000 client members by providing financial and non-financial services through a network of 605 branches in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
