Wema Bank champions financial inclusion for women
Wema Bank, recognised as Nigeria’s most innovative financial institution, has unveiled an extensive lineup of activities to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025, underscoring its strong commitment to gender equality and inclusion.
According to the bank, its IWD 2025 event will be held in Lagos under the theme, ‘Harnessing Innovation & Technology To Accelerate Financial Inclusion for Women,’ and will dwell on the crucial role of innovation and technology in advancing financial inclusion for women. A key highlight of the IWD 2025 event will be the Big Sister Project of the Wema Women Network, which will celebrate the beneficiaries of the bank’s mentorship programme targeting women.
Furthermore, the prestigious HeForShe Awards will be presented to male employees who have demonstrated significant dedication to women empowerment within the workplace.
Beyond the main event, Wema Bank has organised a series of activities throughout March to honour and reward women across Nigeria.
Commenting on the bank’s unwavering dedication to women’s empowerment, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Moruf Oseni, emphasised that “in a world that is increasingly becoming digital, no conversation on sustainable development can be productive without considering how solutions in such regard will thrive and remain relevant as the world continues to evolve. As Nigeria’s oldest Indigenous and leading innovative bank, we are both deeply rooted in the advocacy for empowerment and remarkably forward-thinking, so our mission of empowering lives goes far beyond lip service.
“We recognise the gap that exists in gender equality, and as a pro-women bank, we have continued to develop new and more efficient ways to accelerate action for women’s empowerment. This is why we launched our women-focused proposition, SARA by Wema, and this is why we are so intentional about making room for women in the spaces that matter and developing solutions that empower women to thrive in their personal and professional lives.”
He added that for IWD 2025, “We are thinking beyond the now, as always, and looking far into the future to accelerate action for sustainable women empowerment by maximising technology and innovation to amplify impact. With this futuristic mindset, we successfully provided over N50b in finance, disbursed $2.4m in collaboration with the Islamic Development Finance under the BRAVE Women project, and reached over two million women through various skills development, business support, and market access programme—and these are just some of our numbers between 2019 and 2023.
“Imagine how much progress can be made in the global quest for women empowerment if more individuals and institutions begin to replicate the Wema approach. This is the vision that has kept us driven for eight decades, and these are some of the important discussions we will address at the Wema Bank International Women’s Day 2025 Event.”
