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The Women’s Economic Empowerment’s (WEE) action team for the domestication of the policy in Lagos has urged female residents to collaborate with the state government, as it unveils the blueprint to uplift the lives of women in the state.
The stakeholders, who spoke at the conclusion of a three-day meeting on WEE Roadmap Co-Creation held recently, stressed that the policy would not only help women grow their businesses but also ease the financial burden on men.
In her remarks, the Gender and Inclusion Lead at the Policy Innovation Centre, Adekemi Omole, explained that the essence of the co-creation exercise was to address germane issues on how women could be better engaged to maximise the opportunities presented in the policy.
She noted: “It is basically how we can make Lagos State more enabling for women to thrive economically. We have gathered people from different sectors – private, CSOs, public sectors, faith leaders, traditional leaders and also the grassroots – to ensure that everybody’s voice is reflected in this roadmap. We want to ensure that it is usable and it serves everyone.”
Omole who said there was a national roadmap on the WEE policy, stressed that there was a need for a workable one that could be domesticated in Lagos.
She further stated:“The roadmap is like a guide on how women’s economic empowerment can be fostered in Lagos State.For example, it would address very serious issues around how women can be better engaged in agriculture.
“How can women have better access to land so that they can farm and be empowered? How can they have better access to jobs, formal and informal? These are some of the things we intend to achieve. Also, we are looking at emerging sectors – the creative sector, the oil and gas, mining, arts and culture. We want to see how women can be better positioned to make something out of it.”
President of the Women in Export Trade and Investment (WETI), Efe Usin, highlighted the several opportunities the state government had provided for women to thrive economically.
She mentioned one of them to include the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) which offers a single-digit loan for women to grow their enterprises.
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Sustainable Development Goals, Dr Oreoluwa Finnih, who was represented by Joke Ogunojemite, noted: “The reason this policy is being domesticated in Lagos is mainly because we want to empower women. The office of SDGs and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation are the stakeholders in this domestication.”
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