Wema Bank employees empower rural women

Employees of Wema Bank Plc are building a pool of funds for underprivileged women to expand their businesses under the Project Ferry scheme.

Through the salary-for-love initiative, workers of the bank in the Lagos Region led by the project champions selected 47 underprivileged women at Ferry Community in Oworoshoki, Lagos for the provision of seed funds.

Speaking at the empowerment/financial literacy ceremony where debit cards loaded with cash were presented to the beneficiaries, the Regional Manager Lagos Mainland Mrs Aramide Awosanya, said the bank was interested in helping them to grow their businesses and succeed.

She advised: "The funds contributed by our employees from their salaries are not for buying clothes, shoes or for organising parties. Rather, the money is to assist you to grow your businesses, make more profit and become very successful. So, don’t spend it frivolously.

“When we see you again some months from now, we want to see changes, we want to see progress, and we want to see signs of prosperity.”

Also, the Head, Retail Segment of the bank, Mr Mudashiru Hakeem, described the bank and its employees as good corporate citizens who take delight in the wellbeing and success of the people in their host communities.

She advised them to keep good accounts of their daily transactions, warning against spending both capital and profit.

Hakeem who gave them many business and investment tips also advised them to engage in businesses that they understand very well but not to go into any business because many people are going into it.

He also enlightened them on other products of the bank which he recommended to them for patronage.

Salary for love is a corporate social responsibility of the employees of Wema Bank aimed at lending a helping hand to the poor and underprivileged people in the society and women traders who operate under the constraint of capital to scale up their petty trades.