In a bid to accelerate women’s contribution
to the economy, Crown Flour Mill (CFM) Limited, makers of the popular Mama Gold
flour, has launched a gender upskilling
initiative tagged ‘Crown Flour Angels' (CFA). The initiative was launched
recently to help more Nigerian women acquire baking skills or improve on their current
baking skillset while strengthening their capacity to build successful baking businessed
and become successful entrepreneurs.
CFA hosted the inaugural edition of its 3-day
accelerated bakers’ training in Lagos recently. The training was facilitated by
Omolara Ikpen, International Cake Exploration Societé (ICES); President, Afoke
Osubor, Cake and Fruit Expert, amongst other subject matter experts that made
up the capacity building faculty.
Understandably, the segment targeted for
the capacity building initiative is the cake baking segment. The global cake
market size, valued at US$42.94 billion in 2019, is expected to reach US$55.7 billion
by 2027, growing at a 3.77 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the
period. This impressive annual growth trajectory is an attractive proposition
for entrepreneurial young women searching for a lucrative market amid tough
global and national economic events. The CFM upskilling initiative in the cake
baking segment, therefore, provides a path for women in the country to achieve
their entrepreneurial dreams while staking a claim to scaled economic
participatory roles.
Speaking about the capacity-building
initiative, Ashish Pande, the Managing Director of Crown Flour Mill Limited,
said, “Given that women constitute approximately half of the nation’s population
and are the backbone of the family which is the bedrock and the foundation of
the society, implementing a capacity development initiative in the lucrative
cake baking segment will help us make a significant positive impact among that demographic.”
He explained that the number of capacity-building
initiatives in the bakery industry targeted specifically at the female gender
are inadequate, hence the rationale behind CFM’s decision to change the
narrative by introducing CFA, which focuses on deepening the capacity of the
female bakers. He said that the initiative would reinvigorate the women
community as well as raise the standards of living across households as women
have the potential to contribute more to homes.
Elaborating on the women capacity-building
effort, Olayinka Yusuf, Head of Crown Flour Mill Baking School, cited that the
tactics deployed by CFA are aimed at ensuring that the upskilling initiative
achieves the targeted impact. He said, “Skill improvement is an essential part
of any wider entrepreneurial development plan. As part of a bold execution plan
that is being put in place to ensure seamless execution of the Crown Flour
Angels campaign, we will concentrate on addressing baking-related issues via
webinars that will feature well respected experts periodically.”
“About 50 women
benefitted from the inaugural training exercise and were awarded certificates
at the end of the training exercise,” he said.
This new initiative of free cake baking training for female cake
bakers at the Crown Flour Baking Academy is yet another timely intervention by
CFM to economically empower Nigerian women. It also marks the beginning of what
it believes will be a new and exciting journey and trusts that this altruistic
initiative will be impactful for female bakers across Nigeria.
Only recently, CFM donated irrigation equipment to some women
wheat farmers in Kano State to help deepen the productivity levels of these
farmers and as part of its value chain developmental efforts.
It would be recalled that CFM, in
consultation with bakers, has been working tirelessly to close the skills and
knowledge gap in the bakery industry to ensure the industry continues to play
the crucial role of supporting Nigeria’s nutritional needs. While it has set up
various baking schools across the country, the Crown Flour Angels initiative is
another innovative approach to addressing the unemployment and socio-economic challenges
of the nation.
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