The House on the Rock Church, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has empowered over 20 women through small scale businesses and financial grants, to make them self reliant and useful to the society.
The team lead, GROW, under Women to Women Ministry in the House on the Rock, (The Refuge) Abuja, Doreen Mogaji, said that every year the women in the church think of ways to empower other women through provision of equipment and financial grants for small scale businesses.
Mogaji made this known while speaking to journalists during the church Women to Women Conference, with the theme: Planted to Flourish, where seven women were given equipment like hair-dryers, freezers, generator, among others, while 15 women were given cash grants.
“We provided them with all kinds of equipment to support their businesses. We have donations from people who gave us some machines and we look for women who are doing something in that area to support them with the equipment.
“We also have financial grants given to the women, because they can have equipment and they need money to set up the business. This we have been doing for years now,” she said.
The guest speaker at the conference, Pastor Ibukunoluwa Abiodun Awosika said that it is a strategic decision for nation, church and communities to invest in maximising the talents in women to have a better society.
Awosika, who was the first female Chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, said investing in women, means maximising the largest portion of the population of the nation and the church, saying that it is wise to make use of the largest population in the society for better purposes.
“So, it is not a gender thing, if you look at it from business, what do you do with your largest asset? So getting young people’s mind set right early enough, saves them a lot of trouble. It also help the nation, the communities and the church to have them perform maximally for much longer period.
“If nations are smart, even if you have a 50 – 50 percent population of men and women, and 50 percent of women is undermined, you are already at a disadvantage. It does not matter how the core 50 percent population you are investing in works, you are undermined.
“So, it is a strategic decision for nation, church, communities to invest in maximising the talents that women have,” she said.
Lead Pastor of the church, Uche Aigbe, while speaking with journalist during the convention, said that the women have a very important role to play in life, that without it, God would not have created them, admonishing the women to continue to be what God has created them to be.
Also, President of Women to Women Ministry, Pastor Chichi Aigbe, explained that the women are the necks that give flexibility to the men, and that God created them to be help mate to men.
“There are cases where the man is unable to provide for the home, the women should support her husband during that trying period. This is not a time to give up on him because he is not as buoyant as he used to be. It is a mandate and instruction from God that we be helpmates to our men,” she said.
