IWD: Fidelity Bank Indicators MoU with Companions, Launch ‘Give Her Energy’ Initiative to Empower Nigerian Girls

Fidelity Bank Plc has reaffirmed its dedication to advancing girls’s financial empowerment with the signing of strategic Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with companion organisations on the launch of the financial institution’s “Give Her Energy” initiative, a programme designed to equip Nigerian girls with sensible expertise, instruments, mentorship, and monetary information.

The partnerships, formalised as a part of actions commemorating the 2026 Worldwide Girls’s Day, convey collectively a various community of stakeholders: LUSH Hair, Barbergirl Academy School of Barbering, Dee ‘n’ Ell the Shoe Architect, Inter-Bau Foundation, IVM Innoson, Nationwide Credit score Assure Firm (NCGC) and One Universe.

The collaboration is anchored on the Financial institution’s HerFidelity Apprenticeship Programme, a structured platform created to offer vocational coaching, enterprise assist, and sustainable enterprise alternatives for girls throughout a number of sectors.

Talking in the course of the occasion, Managing Director and Chief Govt Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Dr. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, highlighted that the financial institution’s ‘HerFidelity’ initiative displays Fidelity Bank’s continued dedication to creating alternatives that empower girls to realize monetary independence and construct sustainable companies.

“At Fidelity Bank, we strongly imagine that empowering girls will not be solely a social duty but in addition a robust financial technique. Via the ‘Give Her Energy’ initiative and the HerFidelity Apprenticeship Programme, we’re offering girls with sensible instruments, vocational expertise and monetary information that can allow them to maneuver from effort to earnings and from hustle to sustainable enterprise.”

She defined that the programme will ship a spread of interventions all through the month of March, together with the distribution of 1,000 stitching and grinding machines to assist women-led microbusinesses, in addition to vocational coaching in vehicle mechanics, inside ornament, barbing, hair making, and shoe making.

Different elements of the initiative embody skilled headshot classes to strengthen girls’s private {and professional} manufacturers, mentorship engagements with main feminine entrepreneurs, and hands-on ability acquisition coaching in areas equivalent to make-up artistry, nail care, and conventional headgear tying.

Dr. Onyeali-Ikpe additionally famous that empowering girls economically has ripple results that reach past particular person beneficiaries.

“When girls are empowered economically, the affect extends far past people. It strengthens households, grows companies, and uplifts complete communities. Analysis means that advancing girls may add as much as $12 trillion to world GDP. This reinforces the necessity to intentionally create platforms that assist girls to construct sustainable companies and strengthen their financial independence,” she added.

Applauding the financial institution’s initiative, the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Commerce and Funding, Mrs. Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, counseled Fidelity Bank for its management in selling entrepreneurship and supporting girls throughout the nation.

“This initiative strongly aligns with the Lagos State Authorities’s dedication to constructing an inclusive financial system the place girls have entry to expertise, mentorship and monetary alternatives they should thrive”, Ambrose-Medebem said.

Her phrases, “Girls stay key drivers of commerce and enterprise throughout Lagos, from conventional markets to rising digital sectors. This initiative by Fidelity Bank has ensured that we stayed true to the selling and supporting girls”.

Additionally talking on the occasion, the Lagos State Commissioner for Girls Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Bolaji Cecilia Dada, praised Fidelity Bank for championing monetary inclusion and financial independence for girls.

“Empowering girls economically is among the simplest methods to scale back poverty and strengthen communities. We commend Fidelity Bank for this forward-thinking initiative and for demonstrating how collaboration between the personal sector and authorities can create significant alternatives for girls throughout the state,” she stated.

Representatives of the companion organisations additionally expressed appreciation to Fidelity Bank for the collaboration, noting that the partnership will play a major position in increasing vocational coaching alternatives and strengthening entrepreneurship amongst girls.

The Give Her Energy initiative is anticipated to empower lots of of ladies by means of ability growth, mentorship, and startup assist, whereas reinforcing the position of ladies as key contributors to Nigeria’s financial progress.

Ranked among the many greatest banks in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc is a full-fledged Industrial Deposit Cash Financial institution serving over 10 million clients by means of digital banking channels, its 255 enterprise places of work in Nigeria and United Kingdom subsidiary, FidBank UK Restricted.

The Financial institution is a recipient of a number of native and worldwide Awards, together with the 2024 Excellence in Digital Transformation & MSME Banking Award by BusinessDay Banks and Monetary Establishments (BAFI) Awards; the 2024 Most Modern Cellular Banking Utility award for its Constancy Cellular App by World Enterprise Outlook, and the 2024 Most Modern Funding Banking Service Supplier award by World Manufacturers Journal. Moreover, the Financial institution was acknowledged because the Finest Financial institution for SMEs in Nigeria by the Euromoney Awards for Excellence and because the Export Financing Financial institution of the 12 months by the BusinessDay Banks and Monetary Establishments (BAFI) Awards.