WAPA EMPOWERS VULNERABLE WOMEN IN IKORODU

Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has completed a four-week empowerment programme for vulnerable women in Ikorodu area of the State.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training programme on Monday, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Lola Akande stated that the vocational training was aimed at empowering women to be self-reliant.

She explained that the State government created 17 fully equipped Skills Acquisition Centres across the five divisions of the State in line with its determined efforts to use empowerment programmes to cushion the effect of the current harsh economic situation on Lagosians, especially women.

Akande said that women empowerment has always been high on the agenda of both the past and present leadership in the State having realised that the challenges posed by poverty amongst women can only be surmounted through empowerment projects and programmes.

“It is in recognition of this as well as its campaign promises, that the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode led administration has continued to provide veritable platforms on which multifarious vocational training programmes can be acquired on a tuition-free basis for the indigents of the state,” she said.

The Commissioner, represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Abiola Liadi, disclosed that the objective of the training programme was to train women and girls in various skills and vocations for the purpose of economic empowerment and change their status from being dependent to an employer of labour.

While stressing that the past beneficiaries of the four-week short-term vocational training are now able to financially support their immediate families, Akande urged women to avail themselves of several opportunities offered by the State government through the Employment Trust Fund, ETF, and others to improve themselves.

She also used the occasion to call on all well-meaning individuals, Corporate and Non-Governmental Organizations to complement the efforts of the State Government by providing more self-improvement opportunities for vulnerable women in Lagos.