The National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) under the leadership of Barr. Mary Ekpere-Eta recently trained 100 female farmers on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with the aim of equipping them with knowledge on modern agricultural practices in line with the federal government’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Ekpere-Eta said that training and economic empowerment for women is critical for the realisation of the mission of NCWD adding that the centre aims to improve women’s lives especially those in the rural areas through sustainable development programmes so that they can become productive and self-reliant.
She further said that female farmers were assembled from different local government areas in the country to learn ICT techniques that they can leverage on for business development, access to finance, modern agricultural practices, marketing and networking strategies including personal security.
She said, “Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 5 is aimed at achieving gender equality and to empower all women and girls through the use of ICT. As a result, participants were introduced to the global spatial database of land use, food prices, flooding in Nigeria and many other applications and resources online through which they can gather vital and timely information as farmers, so that they can make informed decisions on what to produce, when to produce and where to sell their products.
“As an organisation, we will continue to encourage women and youths who form more than 70 per cent of the nation’s population to harness the power of ICT so that they can participate in and benefit from information revolution taking place across the country.”
In her address, minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen who was represented by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mrs Ifeoma Anyanwutaku said the training is part of the interventions by the ministry to ameliorate the adverse effect of COVID-19 pandemic on women-owned business.
