By Henry Uche
AXA Mansard, a member of AXA, one of the global leaders in insurance and asset management, has empowered over 100 young female entrepreneurs with digital marketing skills in Lagos, as part of its continued effort to increase opportunities for women, accelerate their participation in economic activities and encourage digital equity.
The two-day training held in Lagos, was part of the company’s lined-up programmes to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, which “seeks to empower female SMEs owners with skills to improve their digital output and position them for the immense opportunities available in the digital space.
The Chief Customer and Marketing Officer of the company, Jumoke Odunlami, noted that the program was in line with AXA Mansard’s inclusivity agenda; explained that the company was convinced that support for women through its inclusive protection programmes, is important to AXA’s purpose of acting for human progress by protecting what matters.
Odunlami maintained that focusing on digital equity as a sub-theme of this year’s IWD was because the company realized the importance of digital skills to the growth of the SME sector in Nigeria and wanted to ensure that women are empowered enough to be a consequential part of that growth.
“It’s almost trite to say that SMEs are the engine for economic growth, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. What needs to be continually discussed is how Nigeria is going to unlock that potential for economic development and how much of those potential will be unlocked by women and for women.
“For us at AXA Mansard, we are aware that digital skills will play a major role in Nigeria’s economic future. So, to ensure that women are equally represented in unlocking these future potential, that’s why we have collaborated with SME 100 Africa to support them in developing the required skills”
She stressed that the company’s choice of digital marketing as the skill to leverage was deliberate, having understood the power of marketing and importance of helping SMEs with digital skill to attract more customers for them to thrive in the highly competitive market environment.
“We saw that they have amazing products and services, but they need to understand how to attract value for themselves by attracting the right customers, and you will agree with me that virtually all customer segments are online in one way or the other today. So, if we can empower them with digital marketing skills, we would have been helping them with the heavy lifting of trying to find and attract customers” she added.
Commenting on the programme, Charles Odii, the Chief Executive Officer, SME 100 Africa, explained that the company was happy to partner with AXA Mansard again to empower women within the SME space.
Odii said, “We believe that for the world to truly experience progress, there must be an equitable distribution in the creation and access to opportunities for men and women. This quest informed the need for digital marketing training”
He posited that the training was part of initiatives the organization designed for the Nigerian woman with the aim of seeing them grow, add value to their lives and help them mitigate risks every step along the way.
He added that the group through research found that, regardless of the economic segment, access to digital skills is one of the most important things to present-day Nigerian women who desire to be financially independent, secure and be respected in the community.
“Women entrepreneurs play a vital role in unlocking economic growth as they provide the majority of labour with little resources. As an organization, we will therefore continue to create opportunities for these women to grow and achieve their dreams. We wish every Nigerian woman a happy Women’s Month” he added.