Access Bank has pledged to support women entrepreneurs in the event industry, through its W initiative to tap the industry’s $2bn opportunities and expand their businesses.
The bank pledged this through its Group Head of Women Banking, Abiodun Olubitan, recently at a roundtable discussion with women entrepreneurs. She urged event industry practitioners to scale their businesses while seizing opportunities in the sector.
Olubitan said, “The event industry is worth $2 billion annually and we need to pay attention to it. Access Bank is ready to support women entrepreneurs to expand, we at Access Bank want to associate with them, hear them and support their business to grow, faster than they would do it on their own.”
Speaking also, Gbemisola Ajibulu, Team Lead, W Initiative at Access Bank disclosed that the bank decided to put the event together to underscore the role of practitioners in the event industry which is primarily dominated by women and their contribution to the economy at large.
In her words, “We understand that women play a very important role in the economy generally and the events industry is also a very important sector as well and it is majorly dominated by women.
“We are not just a bank, we also care about businesses and their growth and about women doing business and how they can be equipped both with training and loans – both financially and non-financially at whatever capacity we can help when we need to do so as a bank.”
The event also saw Bolanle Olosunde-Jenrola, Chief Executive Officer of Writer Corporate & Personal Brand Story Architect, train participants on how they can leverage social media to market their products and grow their client base.
She explained, “By putting yourself out there online, you make it possible for someone who is far away and has never heard of you before to patronize your products. So that way, businesses can now scale and increase their customer base.
“Marketing online ensures that you can have multiple customers because many people know you,” she noted.