How JAN, Union Bank sustain leadership, empowerment programmes for Nigerian girls

A non-profit organisation, Junior Achievement of Nigeria (JAN), and Union Bank have devoted a significant part of their sustainable development mission to ensuring that young girls and women in Nigeria have unrestricted opportunities to thrive in the society.

Both organisations have, for eight years, forged a strategic partnership to advance JAN’s Leadership Empowerment Achievement Development (LEAD) Camp intervention programme, a long-running initiative to inspire and empower young girls to become high-achieving women leaders.

The LEAD Camp’s latest edition — the 8th collaboration between JAN and Union Bank — held recently in Lagos witnessed participation from over 300 girls.

The week-long event was used to provide guidance and to improve the skill sets of the girls in areas of financial literacy, entrepreneurship, technology, coding, career development, general health and wellness, and sexual reproductive health, creative arts, and entertainment.

During the programme, the girls learnt and received mentorship from some outstanding women in the private and public sectors across the globe — courtesy of Junior Achievement of Nigeria’s association with its global counterpart, Junior Achievement Worldwide (JAW).

The programme, now in its 21st year, has played a significant role in developing and advancing the career of over 1,000 girls in Nigeria, churning influential alumni such as Nkechi Eze-Balogun, founder of Asoebi Bella; Oduolayinka Osunloye, youth advisor at IREX; Oyin Olugbile-Adewale, founder of Parisian Consult; among others.

JAN’s Executive Director, Foluso Gbadamosi, in her remarks, said, “The LEAD Camp is to demonstrate that regardless of their socio-economic status, background or career path they choose to take, young girls and women can be successful with the right guidance, mind-set, skill sets and network. And we will continue to inspire and provide them with a world of possibilities to thrive excellently.”

According to Gbadamosi, this explains why the United Nations (UN), in its efforts towards a sustainable world in 2030, dedicates Goal 5 of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieving gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls.

Union Bank’s Brand and Marketing Officer, Ogochukwu Ekezie-Ekaidem, said, “This partnership reinforces our commitment to the push for gender equality and our focus on supporting the girl-child. We are proud to see the impact of the programme on the young girls across the country, and we commend the efforts of the JAN team who work tirelessly to impact them.”

According to Ekezie-Ekaidem, for African nations that are determined to achieve the UN’s gender parity target in less than a decade, JAN and Union Bank have laid a blueprint worthy of emulation. She added that this portends hope that the dream of a gender-equal world can indeed become a reality in no distant time.

The partners of the programme agreed that the success of initiatives like the LEAD Camp is a critical indicator of the progress Africa and Nigeria can attain if more public and private organisations, independent societal bodies, and future-forward individuals would play similar active roles in ensuring that women and girls enjoy a level-playing field in the society.

Gender inequality represents a major threat to economic, social and global development. Gender discrimination is considered to have an enormous impact on nations’ capability to achieve economic growth, while its psychological effects — low self-esteem, stress, and trauma — on affected individuals make it one of the world’s most critical challenges to conquer.

With the progress in establishing an equal world of rights and opportunities for all gender still at a snail’s pace and posing a great obstacle for many nations, achieving gender parity has expectedly taken centre stage in the global efforts towards sustainable development goals.

According to a report by the UN Women, in 2020, the number of employed women declined by 54 million. This is despite the fact that they, compared to their male counterparts, have less opportunity to land high-paying jobs. Hence, it is unsurprising that they are also generally at greater risk of falling into poverty, as evidenced by the statistics that nearly 60 per cent of women work in the informal economy and an estimated 435 million women and girls globally live in extreme poverty.

To this end, the LEAD Camp partners believe that providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies, and also benefit societies and humanity at large.

Fortunately, in Nigeria, deliberate efforts to reduce gender inequality for societal and national growth have kicked into gear by well-meaning organisations like JAN, Union Bank, and others, with a focus on educating, empowering, and liberating women and girls.

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