Source: Government of Nigeria
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina has said that empowering the Nigerian woman politically and economically is key to achieving the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the country.

Zainab Maina stated this on Tuesday August 19, 2014 at the North West Zone Parallel Session of the on-going Presidential Summit on the MDGs and the Post Development Agenda organized by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs. "I strongly believe that for Nigeria to achieve the goals of the MDGs, issues and concerns of women must be given top priority by development planners," she stated.

She praised the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan for giving women a pride of place in governance and for sanctioning deliberate policies and programmes aimed at boosting the economic empowerment of women in the country. According to her, prior to the advent of the present Administration, women were not benefiting much from the Nigerian financial institutions because the banking policy was not favorable to them.

The Minister further disclosed that women constitute 60-80 percent of the urban workforce in trading and 65-70 percent in the rural areas engaged in small scale under-capitalized activities, thereby participating in the economic life of the nation. She explained that it was the reason why the federal government decided to extend credit facilities to their productive activities to enable them contribute meaningfully to the nation's economy.

Maina commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for introducing gender sensitive policies to support women in business and agriculture, disclosing that her Ministry has been collaborating with the Banks of Agriculture and that of Industry in the provision of credit facilities to women farmers, entrepreneurs and those engaged in other viable economic ventures.

The Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina.
Photo: Bossafricamagazine

 

During the presentations made at the event, the State Commissioners of Women Affairs from the North West Zone commended the MDGs for bringing development closer to the people. They also solicited for gender-specific allocation to enable them do more for the rural women whom they said were yet to fully benefit from the efforts.

• Nigeria