1,276 Women Received Fidelity Bank, ImpactHER Digital Skills
A total of 1,276 women recently received digital and Artificial Intelligence skills through the empowerment programmes of leading financial institution, Fidelity Bank PLC.
The entrepreneurship digital skills acquisition was in collaboration with ImpactHER, award winning investment, not-for-profit organization, renowned for empowering African female entrepreneurs.
Fidelity Bank’s funding of the digital skills training programme by ImpactHER, is a strategic commitment to equip Nigerian businesswomen with relevant entrepreneurship skills.
According to the Divisional Head, Product Development at Fidelity Bank Plc Osita Ede, “Available data points to the fact that women-led small businesses account for over 40% of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. This underscores the critical role female entrepreneurs play in driving economic growth.”
Ede explains, “At Fidelity Bank, we believe that empowering female entrepreneurs with the relevant skills to run successful businesses would go a long way in helping individuals to grow, businesses to thrive and economies to prosper in line with our mandate.”
The online digital skills training, delivered by ImpactHER, covered various topics that relate to leveraging technology for successful businesses.
These include, “Getting Started with Email Marketing”, “How to Harness AI for Content Creation as a Small Business Owner,” and “Branding and Positioning.”
Founder of ImpactHER, Efe Ukala, explains the importance of providing free training saying, “Statistically, women and girls are 25% less likely to leverage digital technology for basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to program computers, and 13 times less likely to file for technology patents.
She notes that the finding highlights the importance of equipping African women with digital skills that can leverage on their businesses.
According to Ukala, “data shows that Africa can add 180 billion dollars to its GDP by 2025 if we close the e-commerce digital gap.
Free Training For Women
“By offering this training at no cost and collaborating with supporters like Fidelity Bank to reach more women, we’re working to make these vital skills accessible to women entrepreneurs who can drive this economic growth”, says Ukala.
The collaboration between Fidelity Bank and ImpactHER is an indication of commitment to providing free, high-quality training to women entrepreneurs.
By combining ImpactHER’s expertise and Fidelity Bank’s network and support for small businesses, the program aims to create lasting impact in the business community.
Participants applaud the free program’s practical approach and the immediate applicability of the new skills.
Fidelity Bank’s Ede notes that the success of the digital skills initiative paves the way for future collaborations which aims at empowering more women entrepreneurs across Nigeria.
The August 2024 cohort brings the total number of women entrepreneurs trained under the partnership to 5,719.
Fidelity Bank ranks among the best commercial financial institutions with over 8.3 million customers in 251 business offices in Nigeria and the United Kingdom including digital banking channels.
The bank has won multiple local and international awards including the Export Finance Bank of the Year at the 2023 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
It equally won the Best Payment Solution Provider Nigeria 2023 and Best SME Bank Nigeria 2022 by the Global Banking and Finance Awards.
The bank also ranks best for SMEs in Nigeria in the Euromoney Awards for Excellence, 2023.
It is the Best Domestic Private Bank in Nigeria by the Euromoney Global Private Banking Awards 2023.
