Coca-Cola reinforces commitment to women economic empowerment

Coca-Cola Nigeria along with its Bottling partner, Nigerian Bottling Company, (NBC) highlighted its commitment to economically empowering women.

Speaking at recently concluded Lagos State Employability Trust Fund (LSETF) Employment Summit, the Public Affairs, Communications &Sustainability Manager for Nigerian Bottling Company, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, spoke on the opportunities for women in entrepreneurship.

She showcased the work the company has done in creating more jobs here in Nigeria and their commitment to achieving more by the end of the year.

Nwamaka Onyemelukwe expressed the company’s resolve to wrap it up on a high note, especially in Nigeria. So far, a total of 3.8millionwomen have been impacted as at the end of 2018 with over 330,000 women beneficiaries coming from Nigeria.

Coca-Cola launched the 5by20 Initiative in 2010, with an audacious goal to economically empower 5 million women across its value chain by the year 2020.

Every year since then, the company has launched different programmes aligned with this strategic objective to create shared value across different communities. 

Sharing some of the successes and key strategies of the initiative, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe highlighted the train and equip model as one of the reasons they have recorded much success, as Coca-Cola has been able to not only provide their women beneficiaries jobs of their own, but have also turned them into job creators.

Nwamaka went on to explain in detail other laudable women empowerment initiatives Coca-Cola has been involved in. Among them is the Educate Nigeria Girls in New Enterprise (ENGINE)– A partnership between The Coca-Cola Company and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).ENGINE program improved the learning outcomes and economic status of more than21,000 marginalized adolescent girls in the Northern Nigerian states of Kano and Kaduna, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria.

As part of her remarks, she said “Women are extraordinary economic multipliers when they have the right support. We have learnt that there turn on investment on women is significant and this is why we create high-impact initiatives that empowers women. 

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