35 Women Entrepreneurs Graduate From Ecobank’s Ellevate Leadership Training Programme
PROGRAMME equips women entrepreneurs with leadership skills to empower
their businesses and communities The African business sector has just become a lot richer.
Thanks to the first cohort of 35 women entrepreneurs from 9 African countries who recently successfully completed the Ecobank Ellevate Leadership Training Programme.
According to Ecobank, this is an innovative impact-driven programme, designed to equip women entrepreneurs with valuable leadership skills to be better empowered, and to equip them to empower their businesses and communities.
Moreover, the Ellevate Leadership Training Programme is designed by
Ecobank’s Commercial Banking Business and delivered by the Ecobank
Academy in partnership with the Global Business School Network (GBSN).
Josephine Anan-Ankomah, Group Executive, Commercial Banking, said: “At
Ecobank we are determined to grow and actualize the enormous potential
of the female economy and help Africa’s female entrepreneurs succeed.
Access to finance alone is not enough. Accordingly, though Ecobank is
a provider of sustainable financing, we continue to invest in making
available an array of non-financial interventions to sustain and grow
women-led businesses faster and further across Africa. The Ecobank
Ellevate Leadership Programme is part of Ellevate Equip, our Learning
and Development Solution for women. It is exciting to see how
Ecobank’s investment in upskilling women entrepreneurs is paying
multifaceted dividends. We look forward to our graduates leveraging
their new and enhanced skills to innovate, grow and positively impact
clients, employees, other businesses and their communities.”
Dan LeClair, Chief Executive Officer, Global Business School Network,
commented: “At the Global Business School Network we believe business
leadership skills contribute to economic development. It is not just
the participants who benefit, there is a multiplier effect as they
invest in developing the leadership skills of their people and
fostering the kind of business growth that leads to job creation. We
are most proud of the class we had the privilege of teaching. They
were simply wonderful – open, curious, serious, and engaged – and, for
me, joining each session was a joy because of that.”
Furthermore, this pioneering graduating class was made up of 35
participants from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
And a formidable group from diverse sectors spanning Oil & Gas,
Information and Communications Technology, Manufacturing, Education,
Hospitality, Logistics, Commerce etc., showed commitment and
dedication throughout the programme.
The participants benefited from globally recognized faculty from Lagos
Business School, MIT Sloan Global Programs, INSEAD Africa Initiative
and INSEAD Gender Initiative, The American University of Cairo School
of Business, Stanford SEED, University of Cape Town Graduate School of
Business. The members of the Global Business School Network delivered
modules on:
Emotional Intelligence; Leading with Authenticity; Defining your
Strategic & Leadership approach; The Three Lenses: Mastering
Influencing and Decision-Making Skills; Negotiating for Results;
Leaders as Coaches; Sustainability and Leadership and; Innovative
Partnership and Collaboration
In addition, each of the women entrepreneurs received a certificate of
completion from the Ecobank Group and GBSN at their graduation
ceremony held earlier this month.
Ellevate by Ecobank is a multi-award-winning solution designed for
businesses owned by women, managed by women, with a high percentage of
female board members or employees, or companies that manufacture
products for women.
While, Ellevate customers benefit from smarter cash management
solutions, favourable lending rates and value-added services such as
leadership training and networking opportunities designed to bridge
the financing gap and scale their businesses.
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