Access Bank through its W initiative is supporting women entrepreneurs in the event industry to tap the industry opportunity and scale their businesses.
Abiodun Olubitan, group head of women banking at Access Bank at a recent roundtable discussion with women entrepreneurs urged event industry practitioners to scale their businesses while seizing opportunities in the sector.
“The event industry is worth $2 billion annually and we need to pay attention to it,” Olubitan said. She noted that the bank is ready to support women entrepreneurs to expand, saying that the bank wants “to associate with them, hear them and support their business to grow, faster than they would do it on their own.”
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Speaking also, Gbemisola Ajibulu, team lead, W Initiative, 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.
“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,” Ajibulu said.
“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” she added.
Bolanle Olosunde-Jenrola, chief executive officer of Writer Corporate & Personal Brand Story Architect, trained participants on how they can leverage social media to market their products and grow their client base.
“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 customers base,” she explained.
“Marketing online ensures that you can have multiple customers because many people know you,” she noted.
Kemi Awe of Kiversworld Catering and Services, a participant at the event applauded Access Bank for the W initiative and supporting small business operators to scale their businesses.
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“Before this event, there were several things that I didn’t know about my business that I was able to learn during the breakout session. I now understand that it is possible to have all my CAC registration done by the bank, this will make my business official and registered,” she said.
“I also enjoyed the social media training session and the tips that were shared to enable me to grow my business online. In all, it was an amazing experience,” she added.