Rising-Up for a United Nigeria (RUN), a frontline civil society organisation that monitors government policies and programmes has called on Nigerians to disregard a video clip circulating on the social media in which the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio is said to have told Nigerians to avail themselves anywhere they see free food.

In a press release signed and made available to journalists in Abuja, the rights group maintained that Senator Godswill Akpabio was maliciously and deliberately quoted out of context by those opposed to his pro-masses policies and the synergy he has developed between the legislature and the executive.

“It is entirely false and misleading to insinuate that the Senate President is mocking Nigerians by asking them to avail themselves anywhere there is free food. For the records, the said video was made in the first week of the inauguration of the Senate and the announcement or invitation was not meant for Nigerians.

“Senator Goodwill Akpabio was inviting his colleagues to a dinner organised by Senator Dandutse Mohammed for the Senate President and Deputy Senate President. Since the dinner was the private initiative of the Senator, Akpabio’s remarks were meant as a joke to his colleagues.

“To have recycled the video and claim it was what the Senate President said on Friday is not just callous but a deliberate attempt to malign a man who has always stood with the masses especially the youth and vulnerable Nigerians. Senator Godswill Akpabio did not and cannot mock Nigerians when he is in fact, working tirelessly to better their lives through quality legislation”, the release stated.

The CSO noted that the Senate President who outperformed his rivals during his stint as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State together with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are working tirelessly to turn around Nigeria’s fortunes with various initiatives and programmes which will soon place Nigeria on the global advanced economies.

“There is no doubt that the Senate President is concerned with the welfare of Nigerians. The harmonious relationship between the legislature and the executive has yielded a lot of positive fruits that must not be neglected. For instance, one of the areas the Senate plans to give full support regarding the National Youth Confab, which will soon be convocated, in the area of accelerated food production, increased investment in agriculture and job creation through industrialization.

“There will also be a Special Youth Envoy for the Office of the Senate President who will be a laison between the youth and the federal government ahead of the forthcoming Confab towards identifying areas of comparative advantage and potentials for effective allocation of resources for national development. To say the Senate President is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians is deceitful”, the release added.

The rights group ended by passing a vote of confidence on the Senate President and called on Nigerians to “discontenance those who are trying to derail the wheels of good governance and particularly the Renewed Hope Agenda to which the Senate President is totally committed to its actualization”.

• Partners with Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to empower 500,000 women.

Through its women-focused proposition, SARA by Wema, Wema Bank, Nigeria’s most innovative bank and pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, has partnered with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to launch MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme, an initiative aimed at empowering 500,000 women across Nigeria with vocational and business management skills.

SARA by Wema is Wema Bank’s women-focused proposition established with the goal of promoting gender inclusion and equality by empowering women with tailored resources, opportunities and solutions essential to enable them thrive personally and professionally. Through SARA, Wema Bank continues to empower thousands of women across Nigeria with access to finance and financial support, access to market, networking opportunities, affordable to free healthcare and a host of other benefits curated specifically for women; partnering with reputable brands and institutions where ideal to proliferate impact. The newly inaugurated MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme is one of these such partnerships which is positioned to transform the lives of women across the country for the best.

MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme is set to run for 24 months and will cover 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The focus will be on two areas: vocational skills and business management skills with a schedule encompassing two days of soft skills and business management skills, followed by two days of vocational training. The final day will be dedicated to an assessment and evaluation session. For vocational skills, the programme will target three main aspects which include food processing, fashion designing and hairdressing. The 5 day in-person training session will be organised into eight cohorts with the initial pilot phase starting in Anambra and spaning to Ekiti and Kano. This capacity building and women empowerment programme will equip more Nigerian women to earn revenue, become economically active, contribute to national development and will ultimately serve to further bridge the gap in gender inclusion.

Tunde Mabawonku, Wema Bank’s Executive Director of Retail and Digital, expressed confidence in the programme’s potential for empowering women to thrive. According to her, “Nigeria’s ever-evolving macroeconomic landscape calls for an acutely intentional approach to providing tailored solutions and opportunities to empower our people, especially the women. At Wema Bank, we understand this need as captured in our mission of empowering lives through innovation and we are very intentional about tailoring our empowerment efforts to the needs of our diverse customer demographics. This commitment is evident in our solutions, partnerships, products, initiatives, and propositions; one of which is SARA by Wema. Recognising the need for tailored solutions that help women thrive, we launched SARA in 2019 as a dedicated avenue for reaching out to women across Nigeria, empowering them with unique solutions tailored to their needs even beyond banking, and providing them with the support they need to maximise their potential. This is the basis of our work through SARA, and this is what has informed the launch of MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme. Our goal is to help women navigate the challenging economic terrain by providing them with skills for self-employment, resources for productivity and support for success”.

“I encourage every woman out there who is willing to learn a skill with potential for income generation, to register for the MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme. We also have grants reserved for this programme so it’s a total package designed to help these women become economically active. Inclusion runs deep for us so we have curated this programme such that women of various ages from any part of the country can participate and reap the benefits of this programme. To every woman out there, I also take this opportunity to invite you to join the SARA Community, our community for women who want better. There are so many opportunities rooted in the SARA and every woman can tap into this extensive range of benefits as a SARA Woman”, Mabawonku said.

The Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, added, “I believe that if we empower the women and they start making money, a lot of prevalent challenges faced by women as a result of gender inequality may be averted. This partnership is beyond the Federal Ministry of Women Affair, it extends to the Nigerian Women Affairs. Our goal is to ensure the sustainability of all women empowerment initiatives, which is why we are bringing in the private sector. On this project, Wema Bank is evidently ready to fly and we are committed to flying together to achieve our objectives”.

MOWA x SARA Accelerator Programme was launched at a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony which held on Monday, September 30, 2024 at the Ministry of Women Affairs Office in Abuja.

• To reward 64 customers with cash prizes in The Wema Bank 5 for 5 Promo Season 4 Independence Day Special

Wema Bank, Nigeria’s foremost innovative bank and pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, is set to officially launch the 4th season of its reward initiative, the Wema Bank 5 for 5 Promo, with an Independence Day special live draw targeted at rewarding 64 Nigerians with cash prizes in commemoration of Nigeria at 64 on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.

Tagged the biggest 5 for 5 Promo season yet, the Wema Bank 5 for 5 Promo Season 4 is set to disburse N135,000,000 to Wema Bank customers across Nigeria. The special Independence live draw which marks the season’s kick-off will hold virtually on the Bank’s YouTube and Instagram channel, and will reward 64 Wema Bank customers with N5,000 each as against the stipulated 10 winners in the daily draws.

To qualify for the Wema Bank 5 for 5 Promo Independence Day Special draw, customers are to perform a minimum of one transaction between now and October 1, 2024, using the ALAT app, *945# or the Wema/ALAT debit card. Airtime or data purchases, inter-bank transfers, bill payments, cash withdrawals and all other transactions made using ALAT, *945# or Wema/ALAT card, are valid transactions to qualify for the draw.

With N135,000,000 set to be disbursed in daily, weekly and monthly draws, including a special grand prize of N5,000,000, the Wema Bank 5 for 5 Promo Season 4 promises to be a game changer, and every Nigerian can participate by funding their Wema/ALAT accounts and transacting frequently using ALAT, *945# or Wema/ALAT card.