By Kola Bamgbola
SUNRISE NEWS, Lagos, Aug 7, 2020 Lagos State will continue to place a high premium on the empowerment of women because of their multiple responsibilities the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Mrs Cecelia Bolaji-Dada has said.
Mrs Bolaji-Dada stated this while declaring open a two day skill and empowerment workshop for women in public service, at the Women Development Centre (WDC), Agege, yesterday.
She said in line with its THEMES Agenda, the Sanwo-Olu administration, in the last one year, has trained and empowered no fewer than 1,000 women in its commitment to poverty alleviation, job and wealth creation.
She said the ministry periodically holds training for women, especially those in the threshold of retirement, so as to arm them with requisite money yielding skills they could rely on to fend for themselves in retirement.
She therefore urged participants at the workshop, to pay attention to all that they would be taught because of the life changing impact the training offers.
“I urge you not to take the workshop for granted as it could be life changing, ” Mrs Bolaji-Dada said.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Mrs Oluyemi Kalesanwo said WAPA looks forward to creating a new set of women entrepreneurs who would contribute their quota to the development of the state.
Advising them to eschew fear, Mrs Kalesanwo said all businesses have their attendant risk urging them not to give in to fear but to start and let things take care of themselves, adding that women must be wealth creators and not only consumers.
Earlier, one of the facilitators Mrs Rachael Ariori said because we live in a changing times, women have no choice but to take on secondary skills to enable them fend for their families and shake off poverty.
Mrs Ariori, who is the Managing Director of Manna House Foods took the women through 35 different cottage businesses, among them aged peoples care, food sharing, property letting/leasing, nanny services, flour production/packaging and food and confectionaries, among others, which women could dabble into even from the comfort of their homes.
Mrs Ariori, who is the Vice Chairman of the Small and Medium Scale Industrialists urged the women to key into the various initiatives of the present administration which has introduced various schemes to promote small and medium scale enterprises as part of its ease of doing business in the country.
No fewer than 50 women of various cadres in public service who are at the edge of retirement are participants at the workshop.
