By Olasunkanmi Onifade

The Nigerian Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE) has urged Federal Government to provide agricultural input for rural women to enhance food production.

The National President of NAWE, Mrs Vera Ndanusa, said this at a news conference to commemorate the International Women’s Day (IWD) in Abuja on Monday.

She added that “women, like their male counterparts, can be big time farmers in Nigeria, if given the necessary and desired support by government and corporate organisations.

“Women are so enterprising but for lack of financial backing, they have gone back into their shields.

“We have women who are very successful in other businesses, so why not in agriculture sector?.”

Ndanusa noted that government could also assist in the establishment of “women shareholders’ multipurpose cooperatives” in both urban and rural settings.

The association president said such cooperatives could serve as channels for information dissemination among the women.

She noted that the provision of such assistance could help in dealing with health challenges like Malaria, Hepatitis,  COVID-19 that increase maternal mortality.

“A special gender-sensitive monitoring system should be developed and adopted by central and commercial banks to ensure that loans and cash transfers target reach vulnerable women.

“The UN can develop gender-sensitive monitoring and impact checklists to assist countries with follow up and assessment of their achievements in all sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The News Agency  of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IWD is annually celebrated on March 8 around the world.

It has “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World”as its theme for 2021. (NAN)