APC CARES Wing
Women Wing
Nigerian women hold families together, drive local markets, and keep communities running. Yet they often face barriers to finance, leadership, and protection. The CARES Women Wing works to remove those barriers and amplify women's voices.
Who we serve: Women entrepreneurs and traders, widows, vulnerable and low-income women, women seeking leadership roles, and girls at risk of leaving school.
The Challenge
Women run a large share of Nigeria's small businesses, but many operate without access to credit, training, or the networks that help businesses grow.
Women remain under-represented in leadership and public office, and too many widows and vulnerable women face hardship with little support.
The Women Wing combines economic empowerment, leadership development, and protection, so that women can build secure livelihoods and take their rightful place in decision-making.
Our Approach
The Women Wing combines three things women consistently say they need: income, influence, and protection. We design programs with women, run them at times and places that suit them, and link them closely with the Economic Empowerment and Education Wings.
Flagship Programme
CARES Women Rise: a combined program of savings cooperatives, business training, start-up support, and leadership mentoring for women in each pilot state.
Programmes
Women's Economic Empowerment: Business training, start-up support, and cooperative savings groups for women entrepreneurs.
Leadership & Political Participation: Training and mentoring that prepare women to lead in communities, organizations, and public office.
Support for Widows & Vulnerable Women: Practical support, livelihood programs, and referrals for women facing hardship.
Health, Rights & Safety Awareness: Community sessions on women's health, legal rights, and safety, with referral to support services.
Women's Networks: Connecting women in business and public life to share opportunities and support each other.
Girl-Child Advocacy: Working with the Education Wing to keep girls in school and prepare them for the future.
Key Partners
Federal and State Ministries of Women Affairs, women's associations and market women's groups, faith-based women's organizations, microfinance banks, and CSR partners.
Safeguards
Confidentiality: sensitive cases handled privately and referred to qualified services. Inclusion: programs reach women across faiths, ethnic groups, and income levels.
The Change We Seek
Picture a widow who has struggled to feed her children since her husband passed. Through the Women Wing, she joins a savings cooperative, completes a catering course, and receives a start-up kit. Today she supplies meals to a local school, and her children are back in class.
Want to support the Women Wing in your community?