Source: This Day Live
In a manner that is quite unprecedented, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has intensified its drive to boost the economic empowerment of women in a move aimed at enabling financial inclusion, poverty reduction and deepening of the nation's capital market.

Nigeria's frantic efforts at transforming its economy to make it rank among the 20 top economies in the world could yield limited progress unless the potentials of the women are adequately harnessed to achieve development objective and reduce poverty.

This, perhaps was the central message from a forum it hosted on the economic empowerment of the female gender to commemorate this year's International Women's Day celebration.

The annual SEC Learning Series which has within the past few months served as a veritable platform for cross-pollination of developmental ideas by eminent personalities was recently focused on, "Inspiring Change for Women's Economic Development", to highlight the global concern for the marginal status of women in economic empowerment. This, has formed one of SEC's bold initiatives to improving financial inclusion for peripheral groups.

Director General of SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh, said the commission was reinforcing its commitment with millions of women all over the world to mark the important role women play in transforming society while also conveying the commission's message of financial literacy and the importance of saving and investing among women.

Only last year, SEC launched a one-day wealth and health outreach programme which was organised in pursuant of its investor education mandate at Kuje market, Abuja-an initiative which further revealed the commission's unwavering belief about relevance of the nation's capital market to the development of the economy through the realisation of the role of women in economic growth of any country.

Oteh had argued that the health of investors had direct correlation to their economic well-being.

According to her: "If you learn to save and invest, you'll have a greater future. If you learn to save and invest, it would solve our country's challenges because we'll build our roads and airports. If you save and invest, you can have a better life in the future. If you are not physically healthy, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you cannot do anything. That is why at SEC, we feel it is important we preach that people manage their wealth properly, that they save, that they invest for their future and for their children's education, for their pension and health challenges in the future. But we must start now with our medical doctors."

While justifying the focus on women at this year's eminent speakers series, Oteh said: "The United Nation's Theme for this year's celebration is "Inspiring Change", and its gives us a reason to be really proud of the great Nigerian women who have inspired change in our nation and have led various efforts for our country's development.

"At the SEC we are determined to see women achieve economic empowerment but more importantly we want to celebrate the critical role of the woman in nurturing our children and giving them the best of love and attention, who will never be led astray to take the life of another human being".

She further argued that women all over the world are faced with societal realities which threatened to limit their achievements and prevent them from attaining their economic potentials.

Continuing, Oteh said: "But of the many realities that women face, there is perhaps none as disenfranchising as poor access to finance. A recent study by the IFC showed that women-owned SMEs are particularly a financially undeserved segment. They are not only less likely to obtain formal financing; they also often get charged higher interest rates.

"According to a World Bank report on 'Investment Climate in Nigeria', about 76 per cent of women rely on informal sources of funds and savings in sharp contrast to only about 1 per cent that obtained capital from the formal sector. Many other surveys have reported women being denied bank loans in high numbers.

"In addition to limited access to finance, women face discriminatory customary and other practices in inheriting land and property. In Nigeria, although women make up between 60 to 79 per cent of rural workforce, they are five times less likely to own land than men."

The Learning Series event hosted two resource persons whose professional output and vocational antecedents are consistent with the commission's commitment as a financial service regulator to enhancing the economics of the teeming female population.

A renowned Medical Practitioner and an activist on gender issues, Dr. Ejike Orji, is an advocate of an enhanced space for women participation in the society.

He spoke on "Creating An Enabling Environment For Women To Thrive", highlighting the environmental circumstance and how revisiting nitty gritty issues within it can remove the inhibitions to female progress and ascendancy.

He argued women are uniquely positioned to enhance social welfare because of their greater biological and social proximity to the children and their natural tendency to give care.

Also, Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BOI), Ms. Evelyn Oputu, an expert in the economic empowerment of women through giving ideational, managerial and credit support to their business ideas, further exposed women to useful ways of getting finance to fund their initiatives. SEC has recently earned a reputation for the creative interpretation which it has devoted to financial inclusion.

It's Wealth and Health Day is another laudable programme on how to connect marginal groups such as women, artisans, traders etc, to a mix of basic healthcare, finance for their businesses and investment options for growing their savings and creating wealth.

Its outreach programmes carry the message of financial security through saving and investing across various regions, geo-political zones, states and cities of the federation. Oteh said that another reason for women's economic exclusion was the disparities in earnings as in almost all parts of the world, women earn less than men.

According to her, a study by the DFID revealed that when the incomes of men and women with the same educational levels were compared, women at every educational level earned at least 20 per cent less than their male counterparts and men with less education in some cases earn more than more educated female peers.

"For example, women with tertiary education earn the same as men having secondary education qualifications, while women with secondary education have similar incomes to men with no education at all," she added.

• Nigeria