Coca Cola Nigeria Limited (CCNL), the domestic unit of the Atlanta based Coca Cola is to empower over 5 million women between 2010 and 2050 using its value chain around the world.
“Women are crucial to our distribution base in the country,” said Clem Ugorji, head, public affairs and communication, CCNL, who represented the President of the Company during the 13th Annual conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WimBiz).
“Between 70 percent and 80 percent of our distribution outlets are run by women, we also do what they call business financial skill learning were these women are taught the basic ceramics of business,” he said.
In order to promote economic independence among women reduce unemployment, CCNL, under the lady mechanic initiative, recently graduated 25 women who had been sponsored by the company, in Edo State Benin City.
In 2013, CCNL, in collaboration with Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation distributed one hundred iconic kiosks to women selected from various communities of the State.
It would be recalled that the brand leader has partnered the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) to bolster the educational and economic opportunities of more than 10,000 marginalised girls and young women in Nigeria.
The management and consultancy service of the aviation sector is wide open to Women, according to Captain Edward Boyo, founder and managing director of Landover Company Limited, a leading aviation services company in Africa.
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“There are also opportunities in the hotel, tourism and hospitality sector for women to tap into,” said Boyo.
A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistic on job creation in Nigeria showed the informal sector adding 53 percent jobs to the economy driven by male ownership of businesses and enterprises, which accounted for 90 percent of establishments while the balance of 10 percent is owned and managed by the female segment.
The report went further to state that the female population consistently accounted for a large portion of new jobs in the formal sector with an average of 53 percent over the two quarters under review.
The growth in the female demography of the labour market was largely driven by the Education and Health (and Social work) sectors in Q1 2013, which accounted for 60 percent of total employment absorption in that demography. In both genders, 64 percent of new jobs were full-time with the balance of 36 percent being part-time.
Nigeria is unrelenting in its to reduce poverty among women as the Nigerian Economic Team Management headed by Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, rolled out programmes such as Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria (G-WIN).
The programme has been adopted by the World Bank and recommended for African countries as an effective strategy to lift women and girls out of the poverty trap to allow them participate meaningfully in economic activities.
BALA AUGIE
