Vanguard, THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2012 — 25
African govts should increase investments in women economic empowerment By BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE
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ATIONAL governments across Africa should increase investments in empowerment of the female gender as the region cannot have real development without improvement in the economic and financial status of women The Executive Director of New Faces New Voices, Ms Nomsa Daniels, who made the call at the World Press Conference on the justconcluded African Women’s Economic Summit highlighted innovations in finance and different initiatives that can be scaledup to encourage decision makers to strengthen the enabling environment for women. She said African women play a very important role in nation building and should be given support to contribute more to the development process in the region. She stated that the challenges militating against the essence of women in Africa include child birth menace, child mortality, poor health services, disparity in education compared to their male counterparts, culture and traditions that relegate women to the background and inaccessibility to credit facilities. She therefore declared that the era of relegating women to the background in the economic development process of nations in Africa has gone as NFNV has taken the campaign for their economic and financial emancipation upon itself; advising the policy and decision makers in the region to complement the efforts being made by the organisation to boost contributions of women to gross domestic product of their countries. Reiterating the vision of New Faces New Voices to see women get involved more in the economic make-up of their respective countries; Ms. Daniels said that the extant vacuum of a lack of women in policy management must be filled to enable them assume more participatory roles when issues concerning economic development are discussed. Corroborating her position, the Vice President/Secretary General, African Development Bank (ADB), Ms. Cecelia Akintomide, stressed the role of women empowerment in inclusive economic development of any nation. In her presentation, Akintomide noted that Africa is not doing
enough like other continents in terms of economic agenda for women emancipation. According to her, women still face challenges of limited education, lack of collateral and inability to own fixed assets, as well as lack of access to information. She explained that those restrictions contributed to the relatively inactive role of women in the formal economy. She therefore decried the current situation where eighty percent of the continent’s Agriculture sector is dominated by women, yet only one percent has proprietary access to landed property. She asserted that the role of women should be
recognised, especially as they constitute the third emerging market in the world. Also speaking at the World Press Conference, the Division Manager of the ADB, Ginette Yoman, said that women entrepreneurs constitute the majority of people at the micro-enterprise level and should be supported to do more. The prevailing high rate of poverty notwithstanding, she said women actively participate in the nation-building process in Africa. AWES 2012 is the second of such event hosted by NFNV, a network of African women in the financial and business sectors. The net-
work was borne out of an initiative of the Gra?a Machel Trust Multiplying Faces, Amplifying Voices that seeks to unlock the untapped potential that is held by women in Africa. NFNV’s inaugural conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2010 and created a platform to begin a serious dialogue with key stakeholders in the financial sector on how society can invest differently in women. The two-day conference covered various topics and identified key obstacles that are faced by women in their quest to drive their entrepreneurial and career goals
From left: Mr. Herbert Eze, Sales Director, Nigerian Breweries; Mr Walter Drenth, Marketing Director and Mr. Nicholas Vervelde, Managing Director during the relaunch of Star Beer in Lagos.
ICAN identifies good governance as panacea for economic transformation
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S Nigeria continues to struggle to find solutions to myriads of its economic setbacks, the upcoming 7th Eastern Districts Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) will be focusing on good governance as a panacea for economic transformation. According to the ICAN President, “the conference, which was packaged to discuss the way forward for Nigeria’s economy couldn’t have come at a better time than this. Aside topical issues put together for deliberations by eminent resource persons, there will be a special meeting of Districts chairmen and members of the ICAN Governing Council, where a new agenda of the ICAN Council for the ICAN districts will be unfolded in line with the promise I made in my acceptance speech during my investiture to build a solid structure on a solid foundation.” The Governor of Bayelsa State, Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson, and other top dignitaries and world-class resource persons have been invited to grace the Conference which is scheduled to take place in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State this weekbetween Tuesday July 17 and Friday July 20, 2012 . The 48th ICAN President, Mr. Adedoyin Owolabi, B.Sc., MILR, FCA will deliver the
keynote address. The theme is Good Governance: A Panacea for Economic Transformation. The conference will feature paper presentations, workshops, plenary sessions, excursions and a gala night among other events.
BRIEF FBN, Poise, others partner to fight unemployment By LAZARUS IBEABUCHI & YINKA LATONA
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OISE Nigeria said it had entered into a strategic partnership with First Bank of Nigeria Plc and more than twenty other companies to reduce the level of unemployment among Nigerian graduates. To achieve this, it had trained about three hundred Nigerian graduates, through its subsidiary – Poise’ Graduate Finishing School (PGS), on employability skills with about eightyfive per cent employed in various sectors of the economy. Addressing pressmen ahead of its forth coming graduation, Head, Poise Graduate Finishing School, Ukinebo Dare said the employability skills’ training was borne out of the need to equip graduates in the labour market with requisite skills needed in modern work place. She said employers of labour are ready to employ job seekers but that they complain of prospective Nigerian graduates not having the wherewithal to do such jobs. “The aim of the programme is to grow individuals with skills that bridge the gap between what they learnt in school and what is obtained in the labour market. As such, we are poised to match their academic certificates with technical knowhow mainly in emotional intelligence, organizational ethics and behaviours, team work, among others that are required to excel in ones career. We are rest assured that experience acquired during the three months training programme will clearly differentiate them from their contemporaries,” she said.
Standard Chartered to boost Africa, China links
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TANDARD Chartered Bank said it will continually promote and facilitate African-China relationship, stating that it plans to host 12 Africa Chairmen in Beijing for its Annual Africa Chairmen’s Conference. According to a statement by the bank, the motivation behind choosing Beijing for this year’s location is in line with Standard Chartered’s commitment to use its unique global footprint to support, promote and grow economically enhancing trade and investment corridors between these two regions. While in China, the bank said it will provide the Africa Chairmen with insight into China’s strides in economic development, the Bank’s Chinese expansion strategy as well as facilitate strategic introductions with relevant and influential government, industry and private sector leaders across China. The Bank’s Africa delegation will also participate in China’s ‘4th Conference of African and Chinese Entrepreneurs’ during the ‘Forum on China-Africa Cooperation’ (FOCAC) in Beijing. The Bank’s delegation is not limited to Beijing, but will be participating in various onward visits to cities such as Changsha, Zhengzhou and Chengdu before returning to Africa. Diana Layfield, Chief Executive Officer, Africa, Standard Chartered, said, “Africa-China trade has risen tenfold in less than a decade. Looking forward, Africa will have 1.1 billion people of working age by 2040 – expected to be the largest working population world-wide, and representing a very attractive consumer base for expanding companies to tap into for the future.