From Our Correspondent, Abuja
The Nigerian Women’s Economic Development (NigWED), an NGO, says it will train 10,000 female students on financial intelligence, leadership skills and political participation.
TheNewsZenith reports that Mr Lugard Okonobo, Director-General of NigWED, announced the planned training during a Mentor-Mentee session it organised, on Friday, in Abuja.
According to Okonobo, the benefiting female students would come from 10 tertiary institutions across the country.
He said NigWED would use the programme to commemorate the “International Youth Day”, with a special focus on young girls.
“NigWED is a collaborative initiative with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. It will run for three years in two circles from 2024 to 2027 and 2027 to 2030.
“Within these two circles, we want to empower young girls with skills for financial independence, leadership and governance.
“This is because every young girl is a potential woman of tomorrow.
“The theme for this year’s programme is “Click to Progress, Youths in the Digital Space for Sustainable Development”.
“We have adopted the theme in line with that of the United Nations.
“To empower the female children, we must engage with them to acquire leadership skills and participate in politics and governance,” he said.
According to him, this is not achievable without strong financial backine.
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“For that reason, we have partnered with CHC Agritech Africa to explore the agricultural value chain of production, preservation, processing, packaging and promotion which are the five Ps of agriculture.
“This is to provide access to economic empowerment with the support of finance for our young girls to be empowered economically and financially,” Okonobo said.
He said that girls could be socially responsible in leadership, politics and governance when they are financially empowered.
The NigWED boss noted that economic empowerment would be impossible to achieve without financial aids.
“Finance is the core driver in attaining leadership position or in running a business.
“So, we want to train girls and give them access to make money and become self reliant,” he said.
To achieve the plans, Okonobo said the NGo would start with students first.
“We have students and youths. So, for the first leg, we are partnering with the African Female Youth and Students Development Initiative (AFYSDI) to drive it.
“We have a cluster of 10 female students in each school that will have 100 students to mentor and manage.
“We are starting with the 10 schools within a three hours drive from FCT. These are Kogi, Niger, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa states.
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