Source: Daily Trust
The Federal Government has promised to support programmes aimed at boosting the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerian women to improve their economic fortunes.

The Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said this in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Ikechukwu Eze, while hosting a delegation of New Faces New Vision, a Pan-African Women in Business and Finance group on their forthcoming summit.

He said that although women constitute a significant percentage of Nigeria's population, they are yet to assert that size in economic representation.

Shamsudden commended NFNV's decision to hold its 2012 African Women's Economic Summit in Nigeria, adding that such initiative would encourage more women in Nigeria to strive to ascend the corporate ladder.

The county coordinator of the women group, Mrs. Aishatu Debola Aminu said the objective of this year's summit with the theme "The Rise of the Female Economy: A $20 Billion Market Opportunity", was to serve as a market place of ideas to showcase financial innovations that can accelerate the empowerment of women.

The minister said further that the ministry identified women as a hardworking group whose significant contribution to the economy are hardly captured in GDP computations because of the informal nature of their activities.

He said that government has developed some policies and programmes specifically targeted at women empowerment.

"Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) programme are addressing issues of women under a special thematic group. These incentives include supporting women entrepreneurs, establishing a national empowerment fund for economic activities for women to access loans, establishment of micro-finance banks which provide loans to women, as well as the bid to reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the country," he said.

• Nigeria