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<p style="margin-left:144px; text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Montserrat"><span style="color:#4472c4">UoN-WEE Hub team led by Prof. Wanjiku Kabira</span></span></span></span></i></b></span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Montserrat">H.E President Dr. William Ruto yesterday, 2<sup>nd </sup>March 2023, awarded The University of Nairobi-Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub (UoN-WEE Hub) in recognition of its contribution towards women’s financial inclusion during the International Women’s Day Celebration held at KICC Nairobi. The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama was represented by the Director, Intellectual Property Management&nbsp;Office, Prof. Mary Kinoti.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Montserrat">International Women's Day is an annual celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women across the world. This year’s event themed; <b><span style="color:black">DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality, </span></b>recognized high-achieving </span><span style="font-family:&quot;Century Gothic&quot;,sans-serif">organizations and individuals in tech leadership for their contributions and demonstrated expertise in driving business value addition.</span> </span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="background:white"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Montserrat">The UON WEE Hub, a program of the African Women’s Study Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was recognized and awarded for its efforts towards women’s financial inclusion under the category</span> <i><span style="font-family:&quot;Century Gothic&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:#1d2228">Economic and financial inclusion for women and girls through innovation and technology.</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Montserrat">The achievement was realized through the thematic area of Affirmative Action Funds (AAFs) and Women’s Entrepreneurship, whereby the Hub <span style="background:white"><span style="color:#313132">evaluates the AAFs with the aim of generating evidence on what works for women’s economic empowerment. It utilizes the evidence generated to inform policy decisions and program interventions that transform the lives of women. Through the AAFs, the WEE Hub builds evidence on what works for these policies to be implemented and upscaled through policy advocacy. The Hub has evaluated the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) and funds such as Women Enterprise Fund (WEF), UWEZO and Youth Development Enterprise Fund (YDEF) as well as the Credit Guarantee scheme (CGS). In addition, the Hub is incubating over six hundred individual and collective women’s businesses where they are exposed to innovative technology and value addition. </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Montserrat">The Hub is honored and continues to work with its partners to support the quest for Women’s Economic Empowerment.</span></span></span></span></p>
