(1 ) Dear Distinguished, Great , Nigerian Women,
I am very delighted to welcome you to our coalition of women NGOs, which is committed to advancing gender equality, promoting conducive business environment and empowering women across our country, Nigeria.
The Association Of Nigeria Women Business Network, popularly known as ANWBN was established in 2013 with the active support and guidance of the Centre For International Private Enterprise(CIPE) based in Washington. It started with 18 associations and has grown to over 70 associations today, and still growing. Together we are strengthening women participation in business, careers and the political space.
As the National Coordinator of this coalition, I am deeply honored to walk alongside such dedicated and passionate individuals and associations who share our mission of building a collaborative coalition, a community of entrepreneurs, creators and thought leaders looking to connect and collaborate, to increase their impact and grow their primary associations and communities, while creating policy change where necessary.
Our coalition is comprised of a diverse group of women NGOs, each with its own unique strengths and expertise. Together, we are working to make a difference in the lives of women and girls, and we welcome any association in that space.
I believe that by combining our efforts, we can achieve our shared goals more effectively and efficiently, which in this dispensation is anchored on 6 pillars we call
A C T I V E.
A = ADVOCACY
C = COLLABORATIONS
T = TRADE/TRAINING
I = INVESTMENT READINESS
V = VALUE ADDITION
E = EMPOWERMENT/ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING.
Together we can amplify our voices, build stronger networks, and create greater impact. I am excited to see what we can accomplish together as a coalition, and I look forward together with my team to collaborating with all of you to make a lasting and meaningful difference in the lives of our members especially and women generally.
Thank you for your commitment to this important work.
Angela Ajala
National Coordinator
ANWBN 2022-2024
(2 ) ANWBN’s contributions to the policy discussion of the Organized Private Sector
On behalf of the Association of Nigeria Women Business Network, we are grateful for the opportunity to lend our voice to the OPSN and contribute on policy priorities especially as touching on women businesses.
ANWBN as we are fondly called is the leading premier coalition of women businesses in Nigeria with over 70 Female Presidents leading 70 vibrant and different associations with over four million women.
We will be sharing with this esteemed Body our Women National Business Agenda which captures our peculiarities and challenges and which will represent the policy thrust we want to see.
In addition to the agenda, prevailing circumstances have compelled us to add the following to it:
- Market Access within Africa, the hurdles and nightmares of logistics, payments, beureacratic bottle necks, multiple offices, etc will need a policy that will make trade as seamless as possible.
- Gender disaggregated data should be used to provide policies on special waivers for women start up businesses, Agriculture and Environmental related businesses.
- Special tax incentives.
- Financial institutions should have as a matter of policy gender segregated data.
- Reducing/differentiating the requirements and costs for female SMES from N25 million to N10 million.
- Have clear policies with timelines to have more operator friendly certification and licensing policies by Government regulators. They should fine tune their processes and merge requirements where necessary.
- Majority of our women are in the Agriculture space. There should be Processing hubs or centers with Quality Assurance laboratories in every zone in the minimum to help reduce production costs.
- Bring more women to the table through the definitive 35% Beijing conference agreement. This should be reflected across board in elective and appointive positions.
(3 ) Department of Trade, UK providing easier access for certain commodities into the UK
The UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) will be launched in Nigeria this month in an event that will be held at the Eko Hotels, Lagos on the 25th of January 2023. This scheme has the following commodities in focus:
- Cocoa
- Cotton
- Fertilisers
- Flowers
- Frozen shrimp/prawns
- Petrochemicals
- Plantain
- Sesame
- Tomatoes
If you play in any of these commodities and you reside in Lagos, we would like to have you participate. If you reside outside Lagos and would like to participate (at your expense), kindly fill out this form https://bit.ly/NPNENpreselection Note that this is a pre-selection exercise. The official invitation will be sent to selected participants by the UK Department for International Trade. The DCTS report will be unveiled here and stakeholders will get adequate information on the opportunities for the sector. NPNEN is supporting members’ participation hence the need for this pre-selection.
(4 ) https://youtu.be/dHV_owANzr0?t=6969
Remarks from Connie at the State Departments’ U.S. Strategy on Global Women’s Economic Security event, highlighting ANWBN as a success story
(5 ) Dear Great ANWBN Women,
On this International Women’s Day, let us celebrate the achievements of women around the world and acknowledge the challenges they continue to face. This year’s theme;
DigitAll is so apt in this season as we all saw how technology helped many during the covid. We must embrace technology as women and challenge the status quo to forge a gender-equal world.
As we celebrate the progress made towards gender equality, let us also remember that there’s much work to be done.
On this International Women’s Day, let us commit to scale up and embed more technology in our work so we can see greater impact, speed and efficiency which technology brings. Let us commit to a world where every woman and girl can live without fear or discrimination or violence. Let us advocate for gender equality and equity in technology.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Angela Ajala
National Coordinator
Association of Nigeria Women Business Network (ANWBN)
IWD 2023
(6 ) Prof Aremu with the Immediate Past National Coordinator, Mrs Modupe Oyekunle; the current National Coordinator, Mrs Angela Ajala and the current National Secretary, Mrs Olakitan Wellington. He was one of the first we visited after the elections.
(7 ) Housing and Cooperative
ANWBN is passionate about everything women and in March 2022, in Abuja, when the Property Score card workshop and training took place. It was only a matter of time that we knew it would translate to tangible results. That training was by ANWBN and CIPE and was attended by relevant stakeholders including the Hon Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen.
Subsequently, advocacy and engagements kicked off which led to very successful outcomes with the leadership of Federal Mortgage Bank Nigeria.
On 29th June, 2022, Mr Lars and Mrs Gbadamosi joined us to pay a visit to FMBN to consolidate the talks and see the direction this was going.
It was a most successful meeting. After several other meetings and paper work, ANWBN set up two cooperatives to be the vehicle for the housing project. Work is going at great speed and we are set to deliver houses to our interested members.
Kudos and big thank you to the leadership of FMBN. We couldn’t have done it without them.