Wema Bank, Nigeria’s oldest indigenous, most innovative and pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, has announced the Top 10 nominees for its women-focused award initiative, SARA Gives to Empower Her Awards; the second edition of its She Empowers Her Award.
The Top 10 nominees are: Social Entrepreneur, Bosede Nwachi; NGO Founder, Chigozie Blessing; Customer Success Leader, Ekwutosi Cynthia; Coach and Public Speaker, Franca Ozini; Ted X Speaker, Hassanat Abubakar; Mentor, Ikepo Osawaye; Marketing Professional, Jennifer Edem Ekong; World Safety Ambassador, Ambassador Mabel Abel-Onaiwu, Founder, Patrick Stephen Purple Heart Foundation for Widows; Oluwaseun Joan Stephen and Virtual Assistant Coach, Victoria Ezechukwu-Obiya.
Launched in 2024 through the Bank’s women-focused proposition, SARA by Wema, the Wema Bank She Empowers Her Award is designed to celebrate, honour and spotlight women who have made significant impact or built a legacy of empowering other women personally and professionally. Deriving from the global IWD 2026 theme “Give to Gain”, Wema Bank’s 2026 IWD will focus on the topic “When She Gains, We Grow”, emphasising the need to give time, opportunities, resources and support to women. In line with this, this year’s edition of the She Empowers Her Award is tagged “SARA Gives To Empower Her Award & Grant”, spotlighting and rewarding women with a legacy of giving to other women.
To make the selection of winners for the SARA Gives To Empower Her Award & Grant, Wema Bank has incorporated a combination of public nominations, an internal jury and a voting process, all vetted by an independent audit body. The first stage was the call for nominees, which Wema Bank opened to the public on February 12, 2026, and closed on February 22, 2026. A pool of 2,332 nominations was received for a total of 351 women, who were then shortlisted to Top 10 based on their impact and clear track record of giving to other women.
The SARA Gives to Empower Her Award ceremony will take place on March 4, 2026, at the Wema Bank International Women’s Day event which holds in Lagos. The ceremony will culminate in the emergence of 5 winners.
Voting is now open for the 5 winners, and anyone can vote at https://bit.ly/VoteSARASheEmpowersHerAward
To find out the Top 5 winners of the SARA Gives to Empower Her Award, watch Wema Bank’s International Women’s Day Event live on YouTube @Wema Bank from 10 a.m. on March 4, 2026
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