In line with its drive towards helping rural women retailers scale up their businesses, Nestlé Nigeria has yet again trained another set of businesswomen in the third phase of its rural women empowerment project, titled: ‘Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria’.
The training, which took place at Golden Valley Events Centre, Nsukka, last week, brought together 50 beneficiaries comprising female retailers in Nestlé’s retail value chain from Nsukka and Obollu communities in Enugu State.
According to the management of Nestlé Nigeria, the beneficiaries would receive grants valued at 300 per cent of their monthly sales in form of Nestlé products. They will also participate in training and mentorship programmes, which will enable them to scale up their businesses, thereby increasing their household incomes.
Speaking at the training, Nestlé Nigeria’s Commercial Manager, Khaled Ramadan said, “We are happy to fulfil our promise of expanding Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria to reach more women in other parts of Nigeria. We are pleased with the progress made by the previous 100 beneficiaries who currently enjoy the training and mentorship provided by Nestlé and her implementation partners – FDC Consulting.
“They are reporting faster turnover and increased revenue as well as stronger visibility of their outlets within their locations. We are therefore confident that these 50 selected retailers in Southeast Nigeria will also reap the full benefits of the support we are providing through training, mentorship and grants.”
Lead Trainer and Head of Partnerships at FDC Consulting, Mr. Phranklin Audu, said: “We are excited about the results and positive feedback from the initial 100 beneficiaries. We have seen retailers expand their stores, increase their stock capacity and improvements in their living standards.
This concept from Nestlé is quite a novel idea.. To empower the beneficiaries with products at zero cost, equip them with relevant skills and assign mentors to aid their growth for a period of three months.”
Also speaking, one of the participants, Madam Ifeoma, revealed that she was overwhelmed. “I didn’t believe it when I was contacted as one of the beneficiaries of the project. But being here today and with all I have seen and what we have been taught, I am grateful for this opportunity,” she said.
So far, Nestlé’s ‘Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria’ has trained 150 in the rudiments of running a retail business. The programme is designed to help rural women retailers scale up their businesses and sustain the new level of up to three times the size of their existing business. It is one of the creative shared value initiatives that Nestlé deploys to help build thriving communities in improving livelihoods.
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