Egejuru, Awosika canvass Nigerian women’s involvement in manufacturing
GRACE EGE JURU, DIREC TORGENER AL of the Owerri Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (OCCIMA), and Ibukun Awosika, the founder and chief executive officer, Sokoa Chair Centre Limited, have urged Nigerian women to venture into the manufacturing sector of the economy, while also asking the federal government to embark on a policy campaign that entice women to go into manufacturing.
Egejuru, in a mailed note to Business A.M. said that women can multitask and that they complement their male counterparts in different sectors of the economy, and that in the past their most important activity was the care of children, followed by house-keeping and then trading, but things have changed as women are embracing education, business, alongside their male counterpart.
She noted that the women are industrious and are playing good roles in other sectors of the economy except the industrial sector where the “Nigerian policy holds women back from going into manufacturing and this makes the economy suffer”.
She called on the federal government to enact a law or embark on serious campaigns to enhance the chances of the women going into manufacturing.
Egejuru said that the safety and the security of Nigerian women are important and should not be toyed with as they are the endangered species.
“Women are the endangered species and they are very conscious of their environments. Safety of the environment is every woman’s concern irrespective of their status in the society. There is need for laws protecting women’s rights in Nigeria to enable and empower women in our society,” she said.
She noted the shortage of women skilled workers in the manufacturing sector as another big challenge facing the industry, saying that most of skilled workers are men, and many of them would not even want to work under a woman.
Egejuru pointed out that the society has created a system that enables the Nigerian women not to have the same financial muscle with the men. They have no good accessibility to funds to run a thriving business.
“Women have been created to be soft. It takes a woman with strong will power to take a loan of one billion naira with the interest involved to invest in a manufacturing industry with high inherent risk.
“I believe women should be encouraged and enabled financially with soft interest rate to go beyond their comfort zone in boosting the economy,” she said.
She went further: “It is time to encourage our female entrepreneurs because many are intellectually gifted, innovative, daring and highly more accountable than our male folks”.
In another development, Ibukun Awosika, founder and CEO, Sokoa Chair Centre Limited, has charged women to play a critical role in the Nigerian economy through manufacturing, saying, that the innate qualities of the women such as patience, long-suffering, loyalty as well as sustained energy, they are guaranteed to always achieve their set goals and excel in every field of endeavour.
But she noted that the major challenge women face in the manufacturing sector is lack of funds and collaterals which many money lending institutions demand.
Awosika added that lack of women as role models, champions, mentors in the manufacturing sector was another challenge discouraging the women from venturing into manufacturing industry in Nigeria.