By Chinwendu Obienyi
In its bid to enable women to scale up their businesses and increase their household incomes, Nestlé Nigeria, recently launched the 4th phase of its “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria Project” in Port Harcourt.
The firm in a statement noted that the initiative was aimed at helping more rural women in Nigeria build financial security and improve their standard of living. The company further revealed that an additional 50 beneficiaries from the South South region of the country, selected from the company’s value chain, were inducted into the program at a ceremony that included several training sessions.
At the training and induction session in Port Harcourt, Nestlé Nigeria’s Commercial Manager, Khaled Ramadan said, the company is happy to fulfil its promise of expanding Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria Project to reach more women in other parts of Nigeria.
“We are pleased with the progress made so far by the 150 currently benefiting from the project. The beneficiaries who currently enjoy the training and mentorship provided by Nestlé and her implementation partners – FDConsults, are reporting faster turnover and increased revenue as well as stronger visibility of their outlets within their locations. We are therefore confident that these additional 50 selected retailers in South-South, will also reap the full benefits of the support we are providing through training, mentorship and grants.” Ramadan said.
He added that the beneficiaries comprising female retailers in Nestlé’s value chain, will receive grants valued at 300 per cent of their monthly sales in form of Nestlé’s products and participate in training and mentorship programs which will enable them to scale up their businesses, thereby increasing their household incomes.
For his part, the Head, Partnerships & Training at FDConsults, Phranklin Audu, described the Nestlé Empowering Rural Women project as an amazing initiative and added that the progress and growth recorded by the women in the several states was commendable.
Audu said, “We are talking about visible growth. Grade-C retailers are moving up the distribution ladder and more importantly these women are doing more sales turnovers thereby earning higher incomes for themselves. We must commend the visioners of this project and the entire project team for staying true to cause”.