Empower more women in sustainable agriculture, NAWE tells govts, int’l agencies

The Nigeria Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE) has urged government at all levels and the international agencies to encourage more women in sustainable agriculture.

This was as the group urged the federal government to prepare a bill and send to the National Assembly allowing women to own land officially from family inheritance.

Barrister Vera Ndanusa, made the calls on in her inaugural speech as the 6th President of the association on Tuesday in Abuja.

She also called on financial institutions and credit groups to be women friendly in their lending to the sector, considering the role women play in food security in the country.

“When it comes to farming, women in Nigeria are mostly subsistence farmers; they live from hand to mouth. Now that we have made a decision on agriculture, the first thing is to be able to assess funds that will empower small-scale farmers.

“In the east, the majority of the people in agriculture are women. Now, soft loans are essential for them. The Government and international agencies are called to tailor their programs to encourage the empowerment of more women in sustainable agriculture,” she said.

She said her leadership, in the next four years will continue to build on our strengths, but also take on new directions.

She said, “We will continue our programs that strengthen our professionalism – through education, training and resources.  We will also retain our commitment to solidarity, ensuring that our members that are less resourced can have more opportunities and assistance to develop the skills, the methods and operating frameworks required of a modern entrepreneurial world in a connected economy.”

She also said that her dream, vision and mission in these four years to reposition NAWE including setting up NAWE houses in all the 36 states and Abuja.

Ndanusa said, “The NAWE house will strive to help new and existing companies by providing management training, skills acquisition and shared office space for women entrepreneurs who cannot afford lone offices, business mentoring, networking and exhibition centres.”

While acknowledging the achievements of the past presidents of the association who she said they benefitted so much from their terms as presidents, she noted that their leadership of the association was steady, assured and pragmatic and that they also had clear visions for the changes that NAWE needed and experienced.