The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has advocated for a conducive business environment for Nigerian women to ply their trade, saying the nation owes them an economy worthy of their labour
He noted that women should be given more space for their ambition to flourish, unlike in the past when they carried heavy responsibilities with limited resources for their businesses
Shettima stated this on Sunday when he flagged off the Community Investment Fund (CIF) disbursement for women’s empowerment and financial inclusion under the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up (NFWP-SU) Project in Katsina
He also inaugurated 32 compressed natural gas-powered buses and 200 electric-powered tricycles under the Katsina State Comprehensive Urban Renewal Programme, as well as several completed road projects undertaken to improve connectivity and urban mobility in the state
The CIF fund disbursement, he said, answers a question that should trouble every government, as it borders on how much prosperity has been postponed by asking women to work miracles with too little capital
Shettima said over 40,000 women in Katsina are eligible to receive business capital after fulfilling the prescribed eligibility conditions and demonstrating satisfactory performance in their savings and group activities
Making a case for women empowerment, he said, “Our daughters should inherit their mothers’ determination without inheriting every obstacle their mothers endured
“That is another reason to make this programme succeed The girl who watches a business grow in her own household learns that skill can yield an income, and that ambition can survive contact with adversity.
“We owe these women an economy worthy of their labour They have carried heavy responsibilities with limited means; their ambition should now have more room to flourish. With confidence in their abilities.”
On the CIF design, Shettima said it is an empowerment programme for which training is required, explaining that “money needs knowledge and organisation to produce lasting results”
Earlier, Katsina State Governor, Malam Dikko Radda, said the state government has committed an additional N4 billion to the implementation of the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up, bringing the state’s total financial commitment to the programme to N8 billion
Governor Radda noted that the flag-off of the programme was expanding economic opportunities for women across the state with the ultimate objective of improving their livelihoods
On his part, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mr Matthew Verghis, said Nigerian women are already making significant contributions across various sectors of the economy and noted that closing gender gaps would require deliberate action