Apart from sexual gratification itself, sexual violence against women is often a result of unequal power equations, both real and perceived between men and women, and is also strongly influenced by cultural factors and values. Sexual violence is likely to occur more commonly in cultures that foster beliefs of perceived male superiority and social and cultural inferiority of women. Kalra, G. & Bhugra, D. (2013) Indian Journal of Psychiatry

In many societies, women, as well as men, regard marriage as entailing the obligation on women to be sexually available virtually without limit. Even outside of marriage, women may have extremely few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances. World Health Organization, First World Report on Violence and Health (2002).

To share her views and insights on the “Societal Ills Plaguing the Girl Child: Cultural Norms that serve as Enablers”.

SCwN Conversations hosted Ini Abimbola -Vice President/Founding Member, Association of Sustainability Professionals of Nigeria (ASPN); Convener, Africa CEO Roundtable & Conference on Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility. She is also the Country & Regional Lead (Sub-Saharan Africa) for The CSR Company, a global CSR Network of organizations spanning South East Asia, Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

Ini also served as the pioneer Executive Director, Defence for Children International – Nigeria Section. She was also a Consultant with the Women, Gender and Development Directorate of the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as well as the African Centre for Gender & Development within the UN Economic Commission, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

She is a 2008 Draper Hills Fellow on Democracy, Development & Rule of Law at Stanford University California and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.

The Council on Foreign Relations and the McKinsey Global Institute indicated that Nigeria’s gross domestic product could grow by 23% by 2025 if women participated in the economy to the same extent as men.” However, limited access to finance remains a major challenge that prevents women from fully participating in the economy.
Some of the recommendations made to a financial institution in Nigeria to challenge this narrative include: Simplifying and streamlining the loan application process, Provision of single-digit interest rates for loans given to women entrepreneurs, Facilitate capacity building workshops to ensure women entrepreneurs understand how to apply for loans to start or upscale a business.
Exploring how VFD is Choosing To Challenge gender barriers from a marketplace lens, Theresa Ezeh of VFD Group sat with me to share the Group’s philosophy and approach.
Theresa Ezeh (Tessy) is the Managing Director of Everdon Bureau de Change. She holds an MBA from the London School of Business and Finance, a Post Graduate Diploma in Strategic Management from Stratford Academy, United Kingdom, and a B.Sc. in Management Information System, from Covenant University, Nigeria. Before becoming the Managing Director of Everdon BDC, Tessie was Head of the VFD Group Treasury Unit.

The International Women’s Day campaign theme was #ChooseToChallenge – set on the premise that "We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge”.
SCwN partnered with VFD Group – a proprietary investment company that focuses on building positive and socially conscious ecosystems while creating innovative solutions that are accessible to everyday Nigerian citizens and entrepreneurs.
Sharing their VFD Group workplace lens of the #ChooseToChallenge theme, I had on the show with me, these two amazing ladies -
Tosin Dabiri is a senior executive at VFD Group serving as Head, Institutional Funding, and Investors Relations at VFD Group Plc. Prior to VFD, Tosin worked as Head, Alternative Funding Desk, and Investor Relations at Purple Capital Partners and in different roles at Guaranty Trust Bank.
Abiola Adeeko is a junior member of staff working with the Sales and Marketing team at VFD Microfinance Bank, a member of the VFD Group.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift in business norms that stakeholder activism pursues and the imperative of moving from words to actions. With this context, Business leaders the world over are forced to reflect and perhaps make some necessary adjustments, because quite frankly, it’s a stakeholders’ world we operate in. In conversation with two business leaders to share their perspectives on the topic were:

Uzoma Dozie - one of Nigeria’s leaders in the financial sector and the last Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Nigeria. He is the founder of Sparkle, a mobile-first platform for Nigeria’s retail sector, using technology to power financial inclusion, at scale. At Diamond Bank, Uzoma was responsible for overseeing the Corporate and Commercial arms of the bank. He holds a BSc in Chemistry [University of Reading], an MSc in Chemical Research [UCL], and an MBA from Imperial College London. Uzoma runs angel investment and mentorship platform, Black-Knights, and also the tech-focussed TV show TechTurks, where he interviews leading entrepreneurs and digital pioneers.

Adeniyi Adenubi - the Executive Director Investment Management and Investor Relations VFD Group Plc, which is a group of financial services companies. Niyi has over 15 years of experience in Institutional and Corporate banking, Investment management, and consulting. His vast experience in the financial sector comes from working in Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Financial Advisory in some of the top firms in London.

He is the Chairman of Anchoria Asset Management and also serves on the Boards of several companies where he works on providing strategic direction for the needs of companies to operate at full potential and efficiency. Niyi is passionate about Corporate Governance and brings this to bear on all the boards on which he serves. Niyi holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Ibadan. and is currently undergoing the Owner President Management (OPM) Executive Program at Harvard Business School.

Meghan is the West Africa Director for Acumen, where she sets strategy, oversees investing and Academy programs, and leads business development for the organization's work in the region, based in Lagos, Nigeria. Meghan joined Acumen in 2013 and was leading the global Talent function before relocating to West Africa in 2018.
Meghan's commitment to this work is rooted in her experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, after which she facilitated microfinance loans for Grameen America.
Meghan holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a bachelor's degree from American University in Political Science.

Tayo Fagbule is the Editor of BusinessDay, prior to this, he worked as a researcher at Danne Institute for Research where he oversaw projects: Transformation of Lagos; Protests in Nigeria; Connectivity & Productivity in Lagos.
He was the Deputy Editor and Chairman, Editorial Board at BusinessDay where he is responsible for researching and writing about the socio-economic environment of business in Nigeria as well as leading content development strategies and shaping the opinion of Nigeria's leading business newspaper.
He has over a decade of experience working in the media industry. He was Nigeria correspondent for The Africa Report and Africa Confidential for two years where he wrote regularly on business, economic, and politics in Nigeria and West Africa. During this period, he was a member of the editorial board of Financial Derivatives Company, Nigeria’s leading investment research firm.

Temitope Obasanya is currently the Vice President & Treasurer at Chapel Hill Denham, Nigeria’s leading Investment Bank, with several years of work experience spanning regional financial markets across sub-Saharan Africa. She is a CFA charter holder and Society Leader at CFA Society Nigeria, where she contributes to building the integrity of the Nigerian capital markets and to developing future professionals. She is a multimedia specialist and her passion for sustainable wealth solutions has seen her deliver financial literacy coaching to individuals and small businesses, helping them make better financial decisions.
Akanimoh Ojo is an SME Banking specialist with 13 years’ experience covering marketing, sales, product development, and management. Within this time, she has developed flagship products and value-added services for financial institutions in Nigeria, contributed to international research and reports by organizations such as the IFC, SME Finance Forum, etc. She has led and participated in numerous local and international forums, webinars, roundtable discussions bordering on issues that affect Micro Small, and medium enterprises. She is currently leading the SME Desk of one of Nigeria’s top 5 banks, where she is part of the team that develops and facilitates MSME programs ( financial and non-financial) targeted at smart banking, capacity building, business growth, and access to finance.
Uti Ellu is a customer experience specialist with over 15yrs experience in various disciplines including customer experience, customer service, customer loyalty, customer engagement, and training, both in the public and private sector across 2 continents. As the Head of Customer Experience in Nigeria for the Number 1 insurance company in the world, Uti is extremely passionate about all things customer and empowering organizations and individuals to understand that the right experience is the true differentiator and revenue driver.

Simeon Umukoro is an International trade expert, an economist and a member of the World Economic Association, United Kingdom. His 17 years of professional experience spans two Forbes 500 Companies, developing and facilitating international trade in west Africa, the United Kingdom with the Department for International Trade, of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), and the Trade, Investment & Innovation Unit of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
He provided technical capacity building, in standards development, technical regulations, WTO trade notification management process for the WTO National Notification Authority in Nigeria, a feat to enhance facilitation of trade in Goods and Services in Nigeria.
Simeon, spearheaded a study of Nigeria’s technical regulations regime and also managed the development of an integrated export quality control plan aimed at improving traceability and enhancing the quality of produce, in the agri-business value chain in Nigeria for enhancement of exports.

Entrepreneurial activities have been found all over the world to be capable of making positive impacts on the economy of a nation and the quality of life of the people, which in turn stimulates economic growth and empowerment of the marginalized. Many countries have been able to energize and transform the entrepreneurship sub-sector which has in turn reduced to the barest minimum their unemployment and poverty level.
Dr. Andrew S. Nevin works at the complex intersection of economics, strategy, capital markets, and investment. He is PwC West Africa’s Financial Services Leader across Assurance, Tax, and Advisory and has almost 33 years of professional experience as an entrepreneur, private equity investor, line manager, economist, and strategy consultant. Over his professional career he has previously lived in Asia, North America, and Europe and now based in Lagos, Nigeria since early 2012. He describes himself as a tireless advocate for innovation and is one of the leading advocates for Blockchain technology adoption in the country, including sponsoring the Blockchain website www.blockchainafrica.io
Osaretin Oswald Guobadia co-founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of DBH Solutions, a building infrastructure and top tier technology solutions provider in West Africa. He is a business strategy and technology consultant with over 20 years’ experience in technology and business strategy, and a non-executive director of Renaissance Capital (Nigeria), a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank with access to over 50 markets globally. His interests also span venture capitalism and entrepreneurship, with significant interests in mentorship and funding startups.
He is committed to supporting social welfare programs that improve lives and communities and created the Resolve Foundation, which offers credible and visible opportunities for private individuals and enterprises to execute their philanthropic, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability initiatives.

The African Development Bank showed that Africa has the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world. Small and Medium Enterprises are now the biggest formal employers in Sub-Saharan Africa and will undoubtedly be key in creating the 54 million jobs that Africa is expected to create by 2022.
While the job creation potential is promising, it is a far cry from the demands - Africa will need 122 million new jobs by 2022.
Nathan Lee-Winans Annobi, the current Duty Managing Director of PaySwitch Limited (a fintech company in Ghana). He has over 15 years of experience in business formulation and execution and is married with 4 children. He is also a pastor at a church called IPC-Hope Temple. Nathan over the past 15 years has established 4 businesses all of which he says are thriving well.
Tawanda Kembo, who describes himself as a fourth-generation entrepreneur and one of Africa’s foremost cryptocurrency experts. Tawanda started Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Golix in 2014 - it’s now available in 7 countries and growing fast. Tawanda is one of the earliest adopters of cryptocurrency on the African continent through his involvement with bitcoin in 2012. He has spoken at several major international cryptocurrency conferences, is an avid blogger, and has contributed to and advised numerous cryptocurrency-related companies and projects over the years. Tawanda is committed to giving every person in Africa financial autonomy.