LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited, (LAPO MfB), a premium microfinance institution in Sub-Saharan Africa has collaborated with Wevvo a Non-Governmental Organization to provide support to female breadwinners — widows, divorcee and single mothers.
The partnership was in commemoration of the 2022 International Women’s Day, themed, ‘Breaking the Bias’, which was held on March 8, 2022, across the globe.
Cynthia Ikponmwosa, managing director, LAPO MfB reiterates that “LAPO MfB is a pro-women organization, who has for over 30 years provided easy access to micro-credits to women and free social advocacy services: health, legal aids, skills acquisition and scholarships for clients children to bridge the poverty gaps in a sustainable manner. Today, over 1 trillion Naira has been disbursed to women in Nigeria.
Women and children are among the most vulnerable groups in the world; this partnership is an alignment of vision aimed at #breakingbias and bridging vulnerability by providing easy access to financial services (i.e. credit, savings, insurance products) and social support system to this “special” set of women who are already breadwinners for their families in the society.
In the same light, Weyinmi Eribo, the Founder and Chief Community Builder of Wevvo Nigeria further reiterates that “this initiative is born out of the genuine passion to #breakbias among these categories of women to enable them compete favourably, be of more value to themselves, their families and communities.
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“This partnership will among other things provide; speedy and easy access to credit facilities for economically active female breadwinners; workforce and capacity training; savings and investment options; business advisory services; and other social interventions.”
Speaking with BusinessDay immediately after the official signing of the partnership, Dorcas Thorpe, head corporate planning department, LAPO, said “working with women has been our foundation, it is the core of our vision – to improve the lives of people, especially women, whom we consider to be vulnerable. If you support a woman, you support a family, community, and nation.
“This for me is extending that to a specific segment of women that are more vulnerable, talking about the widows, divorcees, the single mother, the breadwinner of a family who is a woman”, she said.
She said it was interesting for the bank to partner with Wevvo to extend that support to these people who are more vulnerable.
This, she said, will be done through different products, loans, savings and insurance for their children and even access to scholarships. There is a lot of benefit from this partnership with Wevvo, she said.
