The Crown Flour Mill (CFM) Limited, makers of the popular Mama Gold flour, has launched a gender upskilling initiative tagged ‘Crown Flour Angels’ (CFA), which is meant to accelerate women’s contribution to the economy,
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 business and become successful entrepreneurs.
The CFM also hosted the inaugural edition of the CFA by holding a three-day accelerated bakers’ training in Lagos recently.
The training was facilitated by the International Cake Exploration Societé (ICES), a Cake and Fruit Expert, Ms. Afoke Osubor.
The training would help to position Nigerian women to participation in the global cake market size that was valued at $42.94 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $55.7 billion by 2027.
The CFM said that impressive annual growth trajectory of the global cake business provided 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 cakebaking segment, therefore, provided 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, the Managing Director of the CFM Limited, Mr. Ashish Pande, 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.”
Pande 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 focused on deepening the capacity of the female bakers.
He said that the initiative would reinvigorate the women community as well as raising the standards of living across households as women have the potential to contribute more to homes.
