Page 52 - ACCESS BANK ANNUAL REPORTS_eBook

appointed functional Anti-bribery Compliance Officers erment of Women in Nigeria, the African continent and the
across our branches nationwide. We further strengthened world at large.
the implementation of our Anti-Bribery Policy and related
policy documents such as the Code of Ethics and Compli- Access Bank has continued to play a role as one of the
ance Manual, thus making them applicable to all our primary leading sponsors of the internationally acclaimed Women
stakeholders and business partners, particularly our staff, Empowerment Principles (WEPs) promoted by the United
vendors and contractors. Nations Women and the United Nations Global Compact
(UNGC). As a Bank of best practice, we continue to sub-
scribe to the Women Empowerment Principles, and have
gradually begun to eliminate finance and societal stereo-
Human Rights types which exclude women from certain roles, opportu-
nities and privileges. In recognition of our commitment to
Access Bank fully demonstrates respect for human rights
and all related charters on the subject matter. Our Bank’s women’s economic empowerment. Our Chairperson, Mrs.
documented Human Rights policy guides our organisa- Mosun Belo-Olusoga was appointed as the first African on
tion-wide actions in a manner akin to the Universal Decla- the Board of the Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA).
ration of Human Rights. We demonstrate our respect for
the rights of all people, through our gender-inclusive, equal
opportunities and non-discriminatory workplace culture. The ‘W’ initiative
At Access Bank, we respect the rights of all people, men,
women, old, young, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), The award winning ‘W’ initiative has truly remained the
disabled, amongst others. home for everything Access Bank has to offer women and
has helped the Bank maintain its position as the top choice
In addition, we also promote human rights compliance for women in the markets and communities we serve.
through our lending decisions and supply chain relation- Over the last 3 years, the initiative has enabled us acquire
ships. Respectively, our procurement and credit risk teams, 870,000 new female customers with 70% of them using
adopt due diligence processes which ensure that the Bank our debit cards and contributing to the Bank’s profitability.
does not conduct business with prospective borrowers or We achieved a 58% growth in access to finance by stimu-
vendors that have questionable human rights records. Ac- lating the growth of women owned enterprises with up to
cess Bank was the first Nigerian Bank to have a fully opera- N7.3 billion and 308% growth in lending to female individu-
tional workplace policy on HIV/AIDS. We pioneered the HIV/ als by helping them bridge financial needs up to N5.1 billion.
AIDS Workplace Policy Programme across all our subsidiar-
ies. In the course of the years, we participated in 276 wom-
en-focused events and also hosted 31 capacity building
In 2017, we continued to maintain a grievance mechanism and networking sessions that reached over 70,222 wom-
on human rights, among other issues, through our whis- en. More than 55,000 women have benefited from pro-
tleblowing line, through which our internal and external grammes deployed through the W Academy capacity build-
stakeholders can report any human rights abuses. Clearly, ing sessions, networking programmes, IVF fora etc. The
the availability of this line has strongly guarded and prevent- flagship programmes ‘Demystifying Bank Loans’ and ‘Em-
ed members of the Bank’s staff from indulging in human powering Women with Technology’ have addressed gaps in
rights abuses. gender financing and technological skills amongst women
respectively. The Lagos Business School Enterprise Devel-
opment Center (EDC) certified program, ‘Womenpreneur
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND GENDER IN- Business Workshop’ has bridged business and managerial
CLUSIVENESS skills gaps amongst thousands of female entrepreneurs.
More than 700+ families benefited from the educational
The Bank mainstreams the essential characteristics of a advisory sessions/fairs, facilitated by world renowned Ms.
women-friendly institution in line with global best practices. Peggy Hanefors of Ascent Education, that helped them
This requires, among other things, provision of vision and make the right choices and prepare their wards for admis-
leadership to galvanize women’s economic empowerment sion into Ivy League and top schools across the world.
as well as a thorough approach on gender equality and in-
clusion that is comprehensive and cross-cutting. At Access To encourage women’s savings habit, we implemented the
Bank, we do not only believe in the extension of financial first of its kind gender-focused savings promotion, ‘Wom-
services to women, we also see it as our responsibility to en! Let’s Save’ Season 1 and 2 in 2015 and 2016 respective-
truly empower women and promote gender equality. As a ly. More than 216,000 women, including 21,000 new female
Bank of best practice, we mainstream the essential char- customers, participated in the promo with an accumulated
acteristics of a women-friendly institution in line with our net inflow totalling N5.8 billion. The primary objective of the
belief that investing in women can yield great gender div- promotion was to reward a culture of saving, recognizing
idends. We continue to drive strategic initiatives to show- women who demonstrated the discipline to save over a de-
case our commitment to the social and economic empow- fined period consistently.

52 Access BAnk Plc
Annual Report & Accounts 2017