Stanbic Bank, Vodafone Build Capacity of Women Entrepreneurs

/

Stanbic Bank Ghana in partnership with Vodafone Ghana has held a two-day certificate programme for women entrepreneurs at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Accra.

The maiden edition of the "Women in Entrepreneurship" workshop, a follow-up on Stanbic Bank's Lionesses of Africa programme and the SBIncubator project, hosted 51 women leaders.

The business owners were taken through strategic concepts of running and sustaining a successful business by seasoned facilitators from CEIBS.

Speaking on the rationale for the workshop, in a statement issued in Accra yesterday, the Head of Enterprise Banking at Stanbic Bank, Pearl Nkrumah, said "the workshop, which is in effect an extension of the Bank's SBIncubator project, is designed to help start-ups acquire with the right kind of knowledge needed to start, manage and grow a business."

"We acknowledge that the challenges that accompany the start of a business can be daunting to the point of almost having to throw in the towel. That is why we at Stanbic are here to go through them all with you while you ride on our back. Our major-pre-occupation is to see you succeed because Stanbic reckons and emphasizes that advancing women is good for business, good for society and great for Africa's prospects," Pearl said.

Commenting on Vodafone's partnership with Stanbic, HVC SME Sales Manager at Vodafone Ghana, Maame Efua Essel, said "Vodafone Ghana is committed to growing the SME force of the country since it contributes substantially to the economy. We at Vodafone Ghana are passionate about start-ups."

" We want to believe that these women entrepreneurs here present will not let such insightful information that they have gathered from here these past two days go to waste. The workshop has been robust with skill-set relevant for the now and for the future, to help these our women run and stay in their various fields of businesses, which will in turn help build the nation," Maame Efua stated.

The female labour force participation rate in Ghana is estimated at 50.5 per cent, and women account for about 50.2 per cent of the entire population of Ghana (Ghana Statistical Services, 2014).

It is estimated that some 80 per cent of women in Ghana are engaged in various economic activities and they predominate in the informal micro-small to medium scale agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors of the economy.

Read Full Story