Access Bank Partners Kunle Afolayan, Governors Wives To End SGBV

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Access Bank demonstrates commitments to end Sexual and Gender-based Violence<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;access-bank-offers-interest-free-n50-billion-loans-to-mitigate-covid-19-and-endsars-effects&sol;">OpenLife<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Access Bank&comma; Nigeria’s leading financial institution&comma; has elevated its commitment to eradicating Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;To achieve this&comma; the bank has partnered with award-winning film producer and director&comma; Kunle Afolayan&comma; on his new movie &OpenCurlyQuote;Citation&period;’<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8216&semi;Citation&&num;8217&semi; is a movie that follows the story of Moremi&comma; a young postgraduate student who experiences sexual harassment from a lecturer&period; It stars Temi Otedola in her breakout role as Moremi alongside Jimmy Jean Louis&comma; Joke Silva&comma; AdjeteyAnang&comma; Gabriel Afolayan&comma; Sadiq Dabaand Ini Edo&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The screening of &OpenCurlyQuote;Citation’ marks the beginning of <strong>Access<&sol;strong> Bank’s month-long activities aimed at addressing prevalent issues on SGBV in Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Dr Ajoritsedere Awosika&comma; Access Bank Chairman&comma; stressed the importance of the Bank’s efforts towards bridging the gaps that still exist&comma; saying&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;At Access Bank&comma; we believe in gender equality and we also believe that there is a need to make women feel safe not only in Nigeria but indeed&comma; across the world&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Awosika emphasized that in many societies&comma; women have been setback by issues such as sexual and gender-based violence&period; They have been denied access to education&comma; finance&comma; and healthcare&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have therefore made it our mandate to put women where they ought to be and where possible&comma; promote initiatives that will foster a better society for all&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Commenting on SGBV at the private screening of the movie held at Terra Kulture&comma; Ayona Trimnell&comma; Group Head&comma; W Initiative at Access Bank said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The issue of gender-based violence reaches every corner of the world and Nigeria has indeed been plagued by this issue for too long&period; With about 30 percent of women and girls aged 15-49 having experienced sexual abuse&comma; it is important that all stakeholders – private and public –contribute to the conversation&comma; offer support and put in place frameworks to eradicate the scourge of gender-violence from our society&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ayona Trimnell who expressed excitement about the partnership stated further that since the establishment of the Access Bank W Initiative in 2014&comma; the Bank has executed countless initiatives targeted at empowering women&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We believe that women are key catalysts for change in any society&period; We were very excited at the opportunity to be a part of a project that will not only spotlight some of the prevalent issues around sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria but also serves as catalyst to address the long-term behavioural change we seek&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking&comma; Kunle Afolayan explained the metamorphosis of his partnership with Access Bank&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I have seen and heard about the impact Access Bank has been making on the lives of women through its W Initiative&comma; hence&comma; it was easy to select the Bank as a partner given their body of work&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He stressed further that sexual harassment is an issue that is very rampant globally&period; &OpenCurlyQuote;Citation’ wasn&&num;8217&semi;t created to announce that these issues exist&semi; rather incite conversations about the measures that need to be put in place in other to curb the menace that is sexual and gender-based violence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a similar vein&comma; the Bank has also partnered with the Nigerian Governors Wives against Gender-based Violence &lpar;NGWA-GBV&rpar;to implement high-impact projects across all geo-political zones in Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;