By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) 2nd Deputy President, and the Managing Director, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Prof. Adesoji Adesugba has said supporting women empowerment is one of the priorities of the Chamber.
Prof. Adesugba who was speaking during grounding breaking ceremony of the Women Arise Development Humanitarian Initiative (WADHI) Women Incubation Centre in Partnership with ACCI Tuesday said one thing the Chamber does is paying serious attention to gender issue.
He said “we need to support women in whatever they are doing and no matter our social believe, the difference is clear whenever the women are in charge.
“We could see from when women took over the management of ACCI, things began to work and still working. We can also say that whatever you are seeing here today is a combination of ideas from the women we have here.”
The 2nd Deputy President congratulated the management of WADHI for all their initiatives in supporting the women and for raising this Centre for the women adding that we look forward to seeing more initiative coming out from here.
The DG ACCI, Victoria Akai said the Chamber’s partnership with WADHI is a collaboration to establish a digital incubation Centre to support capacity development of Women and also to promote women financial literacy.
She said the partnership also looks at how to link women to international market especially in the context of Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) adding that before we talk of diversifying, we have to look beyond our borders.
“The best way to expand trade is to build the capacity of women. Women understand the etiquettes of business better and that makes them the bedrock of the economy.”
According to the DG, Abuja is seen as a non-commercial city but the people that can truly make it a commercial city are women because they are the ones seen everywhere selling one thing or the other.
“The importance of women going into business is not only for economic gain but to also inculcate entrepreneurial skill into their children. One very important thing is to support our women and also help them build same into their children.”
She lauded ACCI members and EXCOs for their support for the women, “the men have never said no to any initiative that will benefit women but always there to give their full support.
The convener WADHI, Mrs. Esther Eghobamien Mshelia said the incubation Centre is the womb that will birth great things for the women and what we have come to witness today is the handing over of the site physically after all the necessary documentations had been done.
“The building is for a modular business incubation Centre that is being built out of containers and it is to show that they can recycle things. There will be digital training and financial management services for women and also a trading platform.”
