Diamond women in entrepreneurship, a capacity building programme, organised by Diamond Bank plc, was designed to empower women to support their families, says Charles Oguibe, business manager, Eziukwu, Aba branch of Diamond Bank plc.
Oguibe, who represented Mike Akpara, regional manager, Diamond Bank plc, South-East, at the third session of “Diamond women entrepreneurship” programme, held Thursday in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, also revealed that the programme would help prepare women for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N220bn MSME fund.
He urged women to be bold to come out to access funds where they are qualified to do so.
Women, according to him, do not take decisions easily, they take decisions based on what they’ve been told, they need to get the trust of the financial institution and the person managing their accounts, before they could take decisions, but we need to continuously work with them to help them get beyond that.
In his words, “We realised that women can contribute a lot to the economy, but they do not have the financial capacity, as well as knowledge to go into business. So, we are using this programme to improve their capacities and give them information on how they can raise funds to go into their choice businesses.
“Commercial banks do not like to take equity risks; we like them to start their businesses, before we can now come in and support them.
“However, Diamond bank is the only commercial bank in this country that can give out loan of up to N3 million without collateral. Our interest is whether what the customer is doing can support repayment, if it can, we would go ahead and give he/she the loan, without asking for collateral,” he affirmed.
He explained that feedbacks from participants show that they are appreciative of the platform the bank has created for them to access information, which is the most important thing.
The first and second sessions of the Diamond women in entrepreneurship, a continuous programme of Diamond Bank plc, to empower women, were held in Ibadan, Oyo State and Benin, Edo State, respectively.
GODFREY OFURUM
