MSME
EQUIP Testimonials
EQUIP 60,000 initiative gave financial funding to 1, 100 small business owners from across the 36 states of Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory.
The financial award ranged from N10,000, N25,000, N100,000, and N200,000.
At least 50% of the beneficiaries were women.
In all a total of 74,204 youth and women from every state in Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory through a combination of digital training via a web portal and Android Mobile App, and physical training in Kano communities.
The youth and women were empowered with employability, entrepreneurship, and low-tech vocational skills to enable them to rise out of poverty, stay away from vices like prostitution and crime, and become self-reliant to cater to themselves and their immediate dependents.
EQUIP 60,000 was mainly funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, Atlanta, USA. Other partners include Sterling One Foundation, MSMEAfrica, Kano State Ministry of Youth & Sports Development, Kano State Agency For Mass Education, Capstone Resource Centre, and Megalios IT Foundation.
Vocational Skills Training
The 5-Day Vocational Skill Training sponsored by Alliance For Youth Nigeria was initiated, commissioned, and implemented within a month. The Vocational Skill training was laser focused on the unemployed youth in Lagos and Kano State.
The Skill Training section for this session was
i. Beauty (Makeup, Gele Tying, Massage & Aromatherapy),
ii. Graphics Design (Social Media Management and Introduction To Web design),
iii. Solar Installation and
iv. CCTV/Cable Tv Installation.
The Training dates were August 1 to August 5, 2022, for Lagos and August 8 to August 12, 2022, in Kano.
In Lagos, training graduated 132 trainees after 5 days of intensive training. The training was held at the Capstone Resource Centre, a multipurpose event and training center located at 25 McEwen Street, Off Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos.
In Kano, the training graduated 221 trainees after the 5-Day Intensive Training. The training was held within the premises of Kano state Agency For Mass Education, No.3 Kabuga Rd., Off FCE junction, Kano, Kano state.
To further encourage the entrepreneurial spirit amongst the youth and promote self-reliance, a few outstanding and deserving trainees in the classes were empowered with tool kits.
In Total, 11 trainees were awarded toolkits to help them jumpstart the deployment of their newly acquired skills.
The breakdown is as follows: – 4 trainees in the Graphics Design shared equally across Lagos and Kano was equipped with a laptop each.
– 4 trainees in the Beauty Class shared equally across Lagos and Kano were equipped, 2 of them with Make-up Kit and 2 of them with Massage Beds.
– 2 Trainees in Solar Installation class shared equally across Lagos and Kano were equipped with a complete electrical engineer tool kit
– 1 Trainee in CCTV/Cable TV Installation Class in Kano was equipped with a complete mechanical engineer tool kit.
Whitefield Foundation is grateful for the partnership of Alliance for Youth Nigeria. The need for vocational skill training cannot be overemphasized, it is the best way to tackle the rising unemployment in Nigeria
EQUIP 60000
EQUIP 60,000 Youth & Women Empowerment Initiative
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ achieved the following with each beneficiary:
E – Educate; teach skill and empowering knowledge,
Q – Quench; quench the poverty status and mentality,
U – Upgrade; upgrade the skill and mindset of participants,
I – Illuminate; show and lead participants into new ways of economic growth and
P – Pivot; set the lives of participants on a sustainable growth trajectory.
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ was a hybrid program that combined digital and physical training and used an integrative four-level approach towards youth and women empowerment.
EQUIP officially took off in November 2021 with well-attended and highly publicized press conferences in the city of Lagos and Kano. The training continued till March 2022 and ended in April 2022 with two closing ceremonies, a physical one in Kano and a virtual one broadcasted over the internet and streamed live to all participants on YouTube and Facebook. Mentoring, monitoring and evaluation are still ongoing.
The digital training enrolled 71,992 participants from all 36 states of the federation plus the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. While the physical training was held in Kano communities in the high-poverty Northwest region of Nigeria with 2,212 beneficiaries.
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ was laser-focused on the youth and women (between the ages of 18yrs and 45yrs) who are unemployed and disadvantaged living in major cities otherwise known as the ‘urban poor’
The EQUIP 60000 project reached a total of 74,204 youth and women from every state in Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory through a combination of digital training via a web portal and Android Mobile App, and physical training in Kano communities.
Furthermore, a total of 1,100 top-performance participants were awarded seed capital grants to enable them to grow their skills and pivot their businesses.
The youth and women were empowered with employability, entrepreneurship, and low-tech vocational skills to enable them to rise out of poverty, stay away from vices like prostitution and crime, and become self-reliant to cater to themselves and their immediate dependents.
EQUIP 60,000 was mainly funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, Atlanta, USA. Other partners include Sterling One Foundation, MSMEAfrica, Kano State Ministry of Youth & Sports Development, Kano State Agency For Mass Education, Capstone Resource Centre, and Megalios IT Foundation.
20,000 Women and Youth Benefit from Coca-Cola’s Special Intervention Programme (SIP)
SHAPE SIP 2020/2021 CLOSING CEREMONY
Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited in partnership with Whitefield Foundation has empowered over 20,000 individuals with business skills across the 36 states of Nigeria through the Special Intervention Program (SIP). Following the completion of the program this month, a closing ceremony was held on Monday, May 3rd.
The Special Intervention Program (SIP) is an innovative empowerment initiative developed by Whitefield Foundation and sponsored by Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited. The initiative is part of the company’s effort to improve and support the livelihood of young Nigerians following the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which hit in 2020. The SIP program, which held virtually over the course of one year, was targeted at helping youth and women younger than 45 years of age across Nigeria.
Present at the closing ceremony were key dignitaries including the Chairman of Yaba LCDA, Hon. Kayode Omiyale; Vice-Chairman Yaba LCDA, Hon. Alhaji Bolanle Aileru; Whitefield Foundation Trustee, Dr. Oladoyin Sagoe; Founder of Whitefield Foundation, Olufunmilola Johnson; Director Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe; Senior Manager, Social Impact Strategy for Africa Operating Unit, Coca-Cola, Uche Ogbonna; and Chairman of Agriculture & Agro-Allied Group, Africanfarmer Mogaji.
In his opening speech, Vice-Chairman, Yaba LCDA, Hon. Alhaji Bolanle Aileru, who represented the Chairman remarked, “I applaud Coca-Cola and Whitefield Foundation for filling a gap in our community by engaging our youths and women. It is evident that partnerships and collaborations fuel outstanding results”. He also highlighted that the turnout from the communities was truly impressive and that Coca-Cola and Whitefield Foundation both exceeded expectations.
The closing ceremony featured the recognition of the individuals who had benefited from the program. Across the 36 states, people were trained and lectured in topics covering building a successful career, jobs of the future, business as a legal entity, customer service, funding your business, IT, the business of agriculture, catering, domestic essentials, and many more.
By the end of the program on April 16, 2021, participants had completed three different stages of courses comprising over 50 AudioVisual lessons which had over 1,000,000 page views on the website. The virtual training was taught by seasoned facilitators in their respective fields.
Speaking at the event, Director, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe explained, “At Coca-Cola, we are proud of the remarkable achievements of this program. As a company, we understand that 2020 was a challenging year for everyone, but it taught us innovation and opened our hearts to more acts of kindness to upscale what we do within our communities. We recognized that unemployment rates were on the rise with the poverty rates reaching a peak, and as a socially-responsible company focused on refreshing the world, we are also committed to making a difference in the lives of people and communities”.
A beneficiary from the training, Anu Oshilaja, founder of Annyz Fabric Bags, shared her life-changing story on the impact of the program and the funding she had received to further her business. As a token of her appreciation, she gifted beautifully hand-crafted bags to the women dignitaries at the event.
Founder, Whitefield Foundation, Olufunmilola Johnson, in her closing remarks stated, “We are excited by the success of The Special Intervention Program (SIP) and this initiative was born out of the need to help make more successful people who will grow our economy in Nigeria. We are focused on addressing seven UN Sustainable Development Goals covering no poverty, gender equality, zero hunger, quality education, partnerships, economic growth, and responsible consumption and production. We appreciate Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, who deemed us worthy of achieving this feat”. She thanked all stakeholders including the government officials, the facilitators of the classes, Coca-Cola executives, and the participants.
At the end of the event, 50 individuals were announced to receive N30,000 each to fund their business registration and start creating value for themselves. The ceremony ended with immense gratitude and joy from the beneficiaries who expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited as well as Whitefield Foundation for their support.
The SIP Program was part of Coca-Cola Nigeria’s COVID-19 Intervention following the impact of the pandemic on the Nigerian economy. This intervention saw the company fund several community-based initiatives focused on aiding the economic recovery of residents from the adverse effects of the pandemic.
Paga Partners with Whitefield Foundation To Help MSMEs in Lagos
Paga Limited – Nigeria’s leading mobile payments platform- has in keeping with their ethos of “Making Life Possible” partnered with the Whitefield Foundation to identify SME business owners who were caught in the cross-hairs of the unfortunate events of #ENDSARS protest in Lagos State.
The initiative called PAGA BOOST has benefited small business owners across Lagos State with about 60% of the beneficiaries located in the Lekki Axis.These include Artisans, Plumbers, Uber drivers, small event place owners, shop owners, petty traders, and more.
Building on the current work of driving efficient payments for online and offline businesses of which they currently have over 26000 agents across Nigeria. Paga’s intention is to help in making life possible once more for these young entrepreneurs and contribute to the rebuilding of our country.
The beneficiaries expressed gratitude to Whitefield Foundation and Paga for this timely intervention that has made life possible again.
S.H.A.P.E 2020 Series One
The objective of S.H.A.P.E 2020 was to empower disadvantaged and
unemployed women between the ages of 18yrs and 50yrs. SHAPE 2020 commenced in Lagos, Nigeria on February 3, 2020 and was completed on March 27, 2020.
237 women have graduated from this empowerment program and about 150 businesses started already. All the students are beaming with increased confidence improved competence in business management and dexterity in acquired skill.
Single mothers, frustrated housewives, jobless graduates, widows and women of diverse culture, religion and language now have a common platform and support system to keep them progressing in their newly acquired skill.
The number of women in need of empowerment in an urban center like Lagos is highly underestimated. These women though exposed to the glitz of urban life are disadvantaged at leveraging the opportunities.
Family demands and societal bias creates a major entry barrier in them becoming economically empowered yet most of them are passionate and willing to breakthrough if given the opportunity.
There is a need to expand the empowerment skills into new frontiers as the market place needs are changing in a digital age.