Commissioners of Women Affairs have expressed their commitment to the implementation of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) policy in the various states.
The commissioners made the commitment at a two-day forum for state commissioners of Women Affairs on the domestication of the National Policy on Women’s Economic Empowerment organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies with the support of the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), in Abuja.
Recall that the former President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2023, inaugurated a 56-member High Level Advisory Committee on WEE, to support Nigerian women and girls in economic development.
The committee was set up to serve as a veritable bridge between administrations on key development issues affecting women and girls.
The National WEE policy and action plan was launched in May 2023 as a holistic and robust plan that leverages diverse approaches and perspectives to redefine the Federal Government’s approach to women’s economic empowerment.
The two-day forum was aimed at ensuring that all the states in the country adopt and domesticate the National WEE policy.
Speaking at the forum, the minister of Women Affairs, Barr Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, called for investment in the economic growth and development of women, adding that access to funds and equipment at the community, local, and zonal levels will help to reduce the hardship faced by a lot of women in Nigeria.
She urged the government to give women the opportunity they need to grow, saying “Opportunities such as machines and equipment, processing opportunities, finances, and market access are needed for the women to grow.
“15 states have been provided adequate facilities for producing and processing rice and other agricultural output as part of the federal government’s efforts to boost food security and reduce poverty amongst women.”
The commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare in Akwa Ibom State, Dr Ini Adiakpan, noted that the policy sets the pace for the policymakers and the policy implementers to drive it to the needed aim.
The executive director of dRPC in Nigeria, Dr Judith-Ann Walker, said that the domestication process will start with the first cluster with seven states, and in the coming months, eight more states will be selected to support the domestication of the National WEE policy.
The director-general of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof Ayo Omotayo, disclosed that he believed that the National WEE policy document could transform women’s economic status and allow their active participation in the policy process and all productive sectors of our country.
‘’This, therefore, presupposes the need for a collective effort of all critical stakeholders to ensure that the goals of WEE are attained. It is our sincere hope that through this Forum, stakeholders will engage in meaningful and effective conversations for collective action for the domestication of the WEE programme at the sub-national levels,” he noted
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