European Union: Education, a key factor in poverty reduction

The European Union says education is a key factor in reducing poverty and urged Nigeria to empower women and girls through improving literacy.

Pauline Torehall, Head of Politics, Press and Information Section, European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS,  said this at the ”Women for Women” Conference held on Thursday in Abuja.

“Education is a key factor in reducing and preventing global poverty. Many countries around the world are beginning to realise the importance of education and are investing in it significantly.

“Making education available to 100 per cent of people around the world is one way to ensure that poverty declines,’’ she said.

Torehall said that education would  promote economic growth as it ”creates more people who are ready for the workforce.”

She further said that unemployment has  a high correlation with poverty since by employing more people, a country’s poverty rate would naturally decrease.

Torehall, however,  said that no country in the world had ever  achieved rapid and consistent economic growth without at least 40 per cent of its adult population being literate.

“Education can motivate people to become harder workers and can give people the drive to move up in the workforce.

”Increasing the literacy rate in a country can drastically improve economic development,“ she said.

According to her, women who are educated are likely to use vitamins that will reduce maternal mortality, ensure their children take vaccines than the uneducated ones while they  were unlikely to contract diseases.

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“Education increases people’s knowledge of  how to live a healthy lifestyle; education provides people with knowledge about vaccination, clean drinking water and fitness; an educated person is a healthy person,’’ she said.

Torehall, however, appealed that woman and girls should be empowered through education which would make them more knowledgeable about how to care for their families.

Also speaking, Aisha Bagudu, the wife of the Kebbi State governor and founder of MALLPAI Foundation, said that the event was put together to assist women farmers in the FCT.

“MALLPAI Foundation, my NGO, helps rural women because people don’t understand that they also have challenges as women farmers.

“In Kebbi, we help the women with fertiliser and  farming equipment and we thought that we should come to the FCT and assist the women ease their labour by helping them with modern mechanism.

“So this conference was organised for women to share their experiences and try to assist women farmers by empowering them and reducing their hard labour,’’ she said.

She however, called on women to always support one another while working  together in peace and unity.

Aderonke Bello, the Founder of Female Advocacy Mentoring and Empowerment(FAME)  Foundation, said that the conference was organised to empower, educate and inspire women in all facets  of life.

She said that it was also meant to support the Economic Empowerment for Rural Women in Agriculture project and introduce mechanised farming that would boost  harvest.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the women conference was organised by MALLPAI and FAME Foundation to assist women farmers nationwide.