Association urges women to acquire entrepreneurial skills for economic empowerment
A Kogi-based socio-cultural association, ‘Diamond Ladies Association’ has urged the womenfolk to strive to acquire entrepreneurial skills towards attaining economic empowerment to address issues of gender inequality, vulnerability and poverty.
Chairperson of the association Mrs Susan Timah, made the call at the “End of year 2020 Get Together and Beginning of a New Year Programme” organised for members of the association on Saturday in Lokoja.
Timah said that the association duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the state Women Affairs Ministry was out to ensure women economic emancipation and legitimate empowerment.
The chairperson said that while it would not be out of place to seek and pursue political empowerment and emancipation, economic empowerment would guarantee a formidable leverage for women agitations and attainment of political power.
She therefore urged wome to organise themselves into groups and cooperatives to acquire entrepreneurial skills and bring the skills to bear on their business activities with the hope of making profits for economic freedom.
Timah urged parents to inculcate in their children values, discipline and Morales to enable turn out as responsible citizens and enjoined the youth to learn skills and trades available to develop and empower themselves.
Also speaking at the occasion, Mr Williams Aliwo, a Legal Practitioner and former chairman Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lokoja branch said his passion was provoked when the Diamond Ladies approached him for incorporation of the body to serve the interest of the society.
He stressed there were serious cases of women and children abandoned upon the death of their husbands and fathers saying that it was high time women organised themselves into associations to lend support to each other.
The Legal Practitioner described the 35 per cent Affirmative Action as political language coined by politicians from the Beijin Conference.
“You don’t need Affirmative Action to empower women. If you want women empowerment, give them intellectual empowerment, give them economic empowerment, a kind of entrepreneurial empowerment.
Deputy Director PRS, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development Mr Inah Isaac, in his paper titled: “Promoting Entrepreneurship, A Sinequanon for Achieving Legitimate Female Empowerment and Economic Development” encouraged women to do away with fear and launch into businesses.
He said female enterpreneurship was quite critical and should be a very serious matter especially in the Third World Countries “Where there are continuous complaints of female vulnerability, poverty and lack of every basic thing.
“And as it is, the women are crying for 30 per cent and 35 per cent Affirmation and we discovered that in the all the cries, the greatest empowerment that can be done to the female folk is developing their entrepreneurial skills and developing their creative abilities”, he said.
Inah said that the major hindrance to entrepreneurial development in women was “fear” and urged women to dispell fear saying, “entrepreneurship has to do with the courage to face uncertainty to make profit. So, when people are afraid of taking decisions even on their own areas of passion, it limits them”, he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that the occasion was witnessed by the Onu-Igala of Lokoja, Chief Joseph Akpa; Mr Umar Ogbo, National Secretary, ICDA; Ibtahim Adamu, former Secretary, Judicial Service Commission (JSC) among many others. (NAN)
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