6th April, 2019
The National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) has empowered 76 women female farmers and entrepreneurs with laptops as start up tool, to enhance their business using Information Communication Technology (ICT).
The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, made the presentation at the closing ceremony of a five-day ICT entrepreneur training for female farmers and entrepreneurs in Abuja.
The theme of the training is “Discovering, Empowering and Achieving Milestones through ICT”.
Buhari who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant to the Wife of the President, Mrs Hajo Sani, said the laptops would go a long way to boost their businesses.
“The training is all about promoting the social economic development of women and youths, they constitute 70 per cent of the population.
“The world is going digital now, this training will serve as an eye opener for them using ICT,” she said.
The Director General, NCWD, Mrs Mary Ekpere-Eta, said no nation could fully develop to it utmost potential without investing in education, empowerment and development of its citizenry, especially women.
“As a parastatal, we will continue to train and empower youths, who form more than that 70 per cent of the nation’s population on ICT, vocational and entrepreneurial skills development, so they could be self-reliant.
“As a way to motivate all the participants, brand new laptops and stipend for transport will be given to all the participants.
“It is our hope that the system will be put to best to use. We will continue to support and track the progress of all the participants to ensure they succeed in their chosen fields,” Ekpere-Ita said.
She said the centre would be partnering with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to access loans for their business, adding that the participants would submit their proposals based on their business.
Ekpere-Ita said also said the participants would be given long term payment, saying agriculture takes time for business to grow and make profit.
“Most of the participants are drawn from the 36 states of the country especially from the rural communities, we bring them in batches for easy concentration.
“So far, from 2017, the centre had trained 350 women, more will still be trained,” she said.
One of the participants, Khadijah Kama, encourage women to tap into the world of ICT, to increase their production.