Economic Empowerment
Hajiya Zainab Maina, Minister Women Affairs and Social Development, on Monday in Abuja appealed for support from the World Bank to restructure the operations of women's micro credit schemes in the country.
Maina made the appeal when an official of the World Bank visit her.
``The ministry, as in their own effort to empower women economically, we have created Women Fund for Economic Empowerment. We call it WOFEE - Business Development Fund for Women.
``They are currently undergoing a review with the restructuring of the Memorandum of Understanding with participating banks. We would appreciate it if you assist us in these two schemes.''
Maina said the ministry also wished to partner with the bank in reducing violence against women and the improvement of service delivery shelter for women victims of violence situated at Karu-Karshi on the outskirts of Abuja.
She said other areas of collaboration were the promotion of girls' enrolment and retention in schools, especially the girls who dropped out of school because of early pregnancy.
Maina said it was necessary to give such girls a second chance as a means of reducing poverty, maternal and child mortality and to enhance their self esteem.
The minister said in an effort to reduce maternal mortality, the ministry was implementing direct intervention programmes which included an ambulance intervention scheme through which three ambulances were given to each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
``This is to facilitate emergency intervention transportation for pregnant women. Indeed for 2011 and beyond, we intend to procure boat ambulances for the riverine areas to serve the same purpose.
``Your assistance in this area, which is part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Four and Five, will be appreciated.''
Earlier, the official, Ms Marie Marie-Nelly, Director of Operations, World Bank, said each year, the bank processed key themes, noting that 2011 was devoted to women.
Marie-Nelly stressed that 50 per cent of the world's population was female, noting that policies that would integrate women were important.
She said women focused more on education and empowerment when they were financially buoyant.
``The government needs to have gender mainstreaming in all its affairs; we will work to ensure the dissemination of gender issues.''
Also speaking, Dr Katja Jobes, Senior Social Development Adviser, of the British government's Department for International Development (DFID) said it would work with the ministry to address issues of women in the country.
``In the eight northern states 80 per cent of women and girls do not read or write; 3 per cent of females complete secondary school in northern Nigeria.
And two-thirds of girls, by their 16th birthday, are married and are expected to have a child within the first year of marriage and we know that giving birth under 20 increases the risk of complication and death by about 5 per cent.''
She said DFID would invest up to 20 million pounds for strengthening the enabling environment for gender reporting.