Grand Africa Initiative-GAIN and the Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) have announced the second edition of their collaboration to train two hundred young Nigerian Women in an entrepreneurship course titled “GAIN Entrepreneurship Masterclass for Women (Nigeria)”, starting in July 2022.

According to the organizers, the course is designed to equip selected young women entrepreneurs from across the country with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to build and scale their businesses to create wealth and jobs. The training will cover areas critical to the success of MSMEs including ideation, legal, branding, marketing, communication, accounting, modelling, taxation, team building, structure etc.

Describing the significance of the Women Entrepreneurship Masterclass, The Managing Director, DBN, Dr. Tony Okpanachi said “We are excited about this initiative which speaks to our mandate of providing sustainable funding, building capacity of the Nigerian MSMEs and also providing credit guarantee. The GAIN initiative has become imperative to reach as many women as possible by leveraging technology and promoting gender equality. At the end of this exercise, we hope to see more empowered women creating opportunities towards achieving sustainable social economic development”

On his part, the Programs and Partnership Lead at GAIN, Mr Jerry Momoh, stated that “we are delighted to have the support of DBN as we continue to empower women to build sustainable businesses. This training prepares the women to develop themselves, empower them to develop their businesses, equip them with knowledge to create wealth and jobs by building thriving businesses. We strongly believe that entrepreneurship is a powerful tool for economic empowerment and gender inclusion. At GAIN, we are committed to supporting women and young people in general to unleash their potential and contribute significantly to economic development of Nigeria”.

According to Mr Momoh, “this program is in line with one of the focus areas of Grand Africa Initiative-GAIN which is Women Empowerment. He said the program is targeted at selected women from across Nigeria and who will benefit from a faculty of experts in various aspects of business. Eligible for the program are women who have a business or a business idea, between 22 to 45 years of age, have demonstrable interest in business, access to internet, internet-enabled device and electricity to participate in the program. GAIN Entrepreneurship Masterclass for Women (Nigeria)' is scheduled to open a call for application on July 27, 2022. The six-week program will include training and mentorship sessions which will be held virtually”. 

Application Link:  https://bit.ly/GAINDBN

About the Development Bank of Nigeria.

Development Bank of Nigeria is a development finance institution, established by the federal government in collaboration with global development partners to address the major financing challenges facing Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. DBN carries out this function by providing financial institutions, predominantly Deposit-Money and Microfinance Banks with funding facilities designed to meet the needs of MSMEs. The Development Bank commenced operations in November 2017. 

 About Grand Africa Initiative - GAIN

Grand Africa Initiative (GAIN) is a Pan-African non-governmental organization enabling African youths through training, empowerment, mentorship, and advocacy.  This is to help them develop and harness their potentials, unique ideas, talents, and abilities to succeed in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Through her annual GAIN Youth Summit, GAIN Entrepreneurship Masterclass, Grow with GAIN, A Date with GAIN Mentors among others, GAIN has impacted over one million youths. GAIN network comprises young Africans drawn from within and outside the continent, who are passionate about promoting entrepreneurship as a means to reduce conflict, illegal migration, promote peace and economic revival of the continent among other programs.  GAIN leverages strategic partnerships to create and implement programs that impact positively on young Africans and this is one of such programs.