ExxonMobil has invested over $100 million on programmes in support of Women Economic Empowerment in over 90 countries around the world, including Nigeria.
The investments, under the corporation’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative (WEOI) which the corporation commenced in 2005, were aimed at helping women achieve their economic potentials towards improving the socio-economic conditions of their respective communities.
These facts were contained in a presentation titled “Nigeria, The Journey So Far- Marketplace & Opportunities”, made by the Operations Procurement Manager of ExxonMobil Nigeria, Judith Mbonu, at the Women in Nigeria Exhibition & Conference held recently in Lagos. These investments, according to her, had positively impacted on the lives of tens of thousands of women globally.
She also said ExxonMobil upstream companies in Nigeria did business with women-owned companies to the tune of over $24 million in 2016 in furtherance of this economic empowerment onjective, adding that ExxonMobil’s support for Women Empowerment stems from their strong belief that “when women move forward, the world moves with them”.
“We also know that when women control their income, they usually invest in the health, education and well-being of their families and communities, thereby benefitting the entire society”, she said.
ExxonMobil’s Global Sustainable Procurement Manager, Nancy Swartout, who was the International Guest Speaker at the WIN Event, in her presentation on “Global Support for WEConnect International”, said ensuring Diversity was a key aspect of ExxonMobil’s operations, adding that the corporation spent $33 million on its Global Supplier Diversity programme outside the United States in 2016, exceeding its target of $25 million for the year.
She said that the $24 million business volume achieved with women-owned organizations by ExxonMobil in Nigeria in 2016, represented 74% of this total spend, thanking Nigerian women entrepreneurs for their support to the company.
Swartout further said ExxonMobil champions Women Economic Empowerment within the organization through Advocates actively supporting women-owned businesses, noting that the number of such Advocates in the ExxonMobil system had risen from 100 in 2015 to about 200 in 2016.
The Keynote Speaker at the event and Executive Vice Chairman of Famfa Oil Limited, Folorunsho Alakija, who spoke on the theme of the Conference “Bold Steps for Big Change”, urged women to step up and take ground-breaking actions towards improving the success rate and impact of their companies and using her personal business experience, urged women entrepreneurs to persevere till they succeed in business.
The Country Director of WEConnect International in Nigeria, Shade Ladipo, said the NGO was partnering with ExxonMobil and its other partners to train women on the workings of multi-nationals and large organizations, on such areas as their bidding and procurement processes as well as how to compete more effective with their male counterparts in winning business from such organizations.
The 2017 WEConnect Women In Nigeria Exhibition and Conference was part of activities organized to mark the International Women’s Day.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM
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