The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has called for partnerships with organisations committed to empowering women and delivering measurable impact at the grassroots.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim made the call in Calabar, Cross River State, on Saturday while speaking at the 3rd Annual Women Conference and Empowerment Campaign of the Women Life Enhancement Initiative of the Women Fellowship of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.
She said the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development remained open to partnerships aligned with its mandate, particularly those capable of improving the lives of women and vulnerable persons at the grassroots.
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The minister said women empowerment should go beyond creating opportunities, stressing the need to equip women with skills, access to finance, productive assets, technology, markets and mentorship.
According to her, the ministry has introduced several initiatives to promote women’s economic empowerment, including PowerHer774, the Renewed Hope Women Agro-Value Expansion Programme, Women in Nigeria Gas Sector (WiNGS), Green Economy Empowerment Programme 774 and the Nigeria for Women Project Scale-Up.
She said the programmes were designed to support women in areas including clean energy, agriculture, gas entrepreneurship, electric mobility, savings and access to financial services.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim said women remained central to the wellbeing of families and communities, adding that empowering them economically would benefit not only individual women but also their children, households and society.
She commended the Women Life Enhancement Initiative for its skills acquisition, entrepreneurship, mentorship and humanitarian programmes, as well as its multipurpose factory and 400-bed capacity orphanage project.
The minister urged women to take advantage of available opportunities to build enterprises, mentor others and become agents of change, saying every woman lifted from dependency to productivity represented an investment in Nigeria’s future.
She assured the organisation and other stakeholders that the ministry would continue to expand interventions aimed at promoting women’s economic empowerment and collaborate with groups whose programmes aligned with its mandate.
