... Says workplace gender discrimination does not exist in Nigeria
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has dispelled the fear of genderbased discrimination in Nigerian workplaces as expressed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV Consultation Team.
Speaking recently when he received the IMF team led by IMF Economist, Western 1 Division, Africa Department, Mrs Monique Newiakw Ngige said: “The fears you are expressing about genderbased discrimination in terms of work does not exist in Nigeria.
As a matter of fact, Nigeria has implemented the Beijing Women Convention in 1995, and we do not believe that the female should be regarded as underdogs.”
Ngige emphasized that the Nigeria Constitution, Section 16, 2D, makes provision for the government as a state policy to provide shelter, food, jobs, minimum wage for all irrespective of gender. He added that the same constitution also makes provision for equal work and equal pay without discrimination.
Earlier in her remarks, the IMF Economist, Western 1 Division, Africa Department Mrs Monique Newiak said that IMF will promote gender equality and its impact on growth, economic diversification in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2018.
“We will deal with the issues of promoting gender equality and its strong impact on economic growth in the first quarter of 2018.
We will also look at a broad range of indicators, such as economy growth, challenges of the economy, unemployment rate, key policies such as the physical deficit in terms of its composition, such as revenue, exchange rates, balance of payments, monitory policy and what the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing, and how it has led to different development growth in the country.”