NBL to empower 441 women,   youth on entrepreneurship, vocational skills

In line with a corporate commitment to providing empowerment opportunities and promoting entrepreneurship across the country, Nigerian Breweries Plc, the foremost brewer and leading beverage company in Nigeria has flagged off the 2021 edition of Women and Youth Empowerment Programme in host communities and the FCT.

Under the initiative, 441 women and youth drawn from various communities in Abuja, Lagos, Oyo, Imo. Kaduna states will be trained in vocational & technical skills such as fashion designing, cosmetology, event management, photography, tailoring, hairdressing, soap making, solar panel installation among others. The participants will be supported with start-up tools and equipment required in their chosen skill areas.

In the FCT, the beneficiaries who are widows of police officers and members of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), will be provided with vocational skills, business management training, trade support facilities for integration in the non-alcoholic beverage value chain and a network of mentors required to grow small businesses.

According to the Corporate Affairs Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Sade Morgan, “the growth stories from beneficiaries of our empowerment initiatives give us the confidence to continue on this journey. Therefore, we are excited to commence another edition of this empowerment programme for our women and youth with emphasis on entrepreneurship. We believe that the programme would go a long way in enabling the participants acquire requisite skills to start up and nurture small businesses and ultimately become employers of labour. This year, we are also empowering women to become small business owners within our retail value chain by giving them access to relevant training in managing a retail business, equipping them with trade resources such as products and point of sale equipment while exposing them to a network of mentors”

Mrs Morgan described the initiative as one of a series of interventions by the company to support the growth of women and youth in the country especially in the face of the current economic recession. “Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the growth engine of economies across the world. It is the best way to accelerate economic development in the country. That is why we have launched this programme to support economic prosperity in Nigeria. We are also confident that the experience acquired from this training would position participants to play a dominant role in reducing poverty in the country”, she added.

Mrs. Morgan advised the beneficiaries to take advantage of the unique opportunities of the empowerment programme to become financially independent and contribute to the achievement of the global call to action to end poverty and ensure people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

A member of the HEINEKEN Group, Nigerian Breweries Plc is the pioneer and largest brewing company in Nigeria. Incorporated in 1946 as “Nigerian Brewery Limited”, the company made history in June 1949 when the first bottle of STAR lager beer rolled out of its Lagos brewery bottling line. Today, it has a rich portfolio of 19 high-quality brands (such as Heineken, Desperados, Maltina, Life, Amstel Malta, Gulder, Fayrouz and Legend) produced from 9 breweries and 2 malting plants which are distributed nationwide.

Nigerian Breweries is also a recipient of several awards and recognition in other areas of its operations including product quality, marketing excellence, productivity and innovation, health and safety, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability.