8 AUGUST2026W MAN LEADERGLOBAL W MAN LEADERGLOBAL Nationwide has partnered with Female Founders Rise (FFR) as its sole banking partner to strengthen support for women entrepreneurs, female founders, and women-led businesses across the UK. By providing more women with access to funding, business education, networking, and practical resources, the partnership will help them to build successful, sustainable businesses.The partnership will help advance FFR's goals of supporting women entrepreneurs and non-binary founders from early stages of business development through growth and sustainability, with Nationwide's dedication to SME support. The initiative aims to empower founders to turn ideas into successful businesses and increase their access to funding, expert advice and access to useful professional networks.The collaboration is timely, given the economic significance of women-led businesses is being increasingly recognized. will be used by the Standard Bank for extending loans to SMEs in South Africa, which is considered to be one of the most important engines of economic activities in the economy of the country.African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Standard Bank Group have entered into a financing agreement of $332 million (ZAR 5.4 billion) with the purpose of increasing access to credit facilities to SMEs in South Africa with the special emphasis on women-owned SMEs as both parties strive to promote entrepreneurship, employment opportunities and inclusive economic growth.The funding, which has been announced this week, was provided by a capital market security issuance by the Standard Bank Group which is the largest financial institution in Africa in terms of assets. It is designed as Financial Loss Absorbing Capacity (FLAC) facility and it is the first social FLAC facility to be listed on JSE.As per the agreement, the total ZAR 5.4 billion The Sarawak government has been working on creating its first digital platform that brings together real-time data on women entrepreneurs, to ensure better service delivery of training, financial assistance as well as business development programs throughout the state.The creation of the platform, the Women Entrepreneurship Dashboard (WED), is a collaboration between the Sarawak Women and Family Department (JWKS), the Ministry of International Trade, Industry and Investment (MINTRED) and the Sarawak Civil Service Digitalization Unit (SCSDU).The program aims to consolidate all the real-time data on women entrepreneurs in a single digital platform. The centralization of this data will enable the government of Sarawak to better understand the state's women-led business landscape and provide more tailored support to women entrepreneurs according to their needs and growth potential. VMH has appointed Laura Parkes as HR Leader for South & Southeast Asia, effective September 14, 2026, reinforcing its regional leadership as the luxury group accelerates growth across one of its most strategically important markets. She will report to Maud Alvarez-Pereyre, Chief Human Resources Officer at LVMH, and work closely with François Kohler, President of LVMH South & Southeast Asia.In her new role, Laura will oversee the group's human resources strategy across South and Southeast Asia, focusing on talent development, WOMEN-LED BUSINESS SUPPORT APPOINTMENTSNATIONWIDE PARTNERS FFR TO BACK UK WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSAFDB, STANDARD BANK BACK WOMEN-LED SMES IN SOUTH AFRICALAURA PARKES JOINS LVMH AS HR LEADER FOR SOUTH & SOUTHEAST ASIANEW SARAWAK DASHBOARD TO BOOST WOMEN-LED BUSINESSESNEWS BITES
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