Skill Acquisition

The Ministry of Women Affairs has a core mandate to - mainstream gender and human rights perspective across all sectors and at all levels for the attainment of gender equity, equality as well as to ensure the holistic development of Cross River State women and children, with the vision to make women live at par with men; free from all forms of discrimination and negative practice that hinder their development; and to enhance the general well being of children.

For the Ministry of Women Affairs, this is not out of place considering the vital role of women in the society, not to mention the strength and versatility embedded on them by God. It is in this light that the Ministry under the Governor Ben Ayade-led administration with the able leadership of the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon Stella Odey has taken giant strides to establish a skill acquisition centre to cater for some of the needs of these women. It is worthy of note that an incubation centre was commissioned by the wife of the former president of Nigeria, Dame (Dr) Patience Jonathan in November 2010, at the Ministry’s premises to house several equipments bought to empower women in the State.

The present leadership has worked tirelessly to ensure that Cross River Women are empowered and this concerted effort is quite laudable. Prior to this time, there had not been any training at the centre until when a visionary leader, Governor Ayade came on board with a well grounded gender policy with particular interest for the well being of women. This passion engineered series of brain storming session by the management team which eventually gave birth to ‘Train A Woman, TRAIN A NATION’ programme that has become a veritable tool and a platform where women can learn various skills with the objective of emancipating them financially.

Unarguably, the socio-economic status of both rural and urban families can be improved through the empowerment of the women folk. Considering the present economic situation of Nigeria, the need for households to have varied income streams has become pertinent. Presently, women are purposely involved in almost all sectors of the economy owing to their dexterity and versatility to add a boost to the economy. Therefore, skills acquisition is no doubt a potent force in the empowerment drive to adequately equip these women for the role they have to play in national development.

According to the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. Stella Odey “…the small and micro enterprise in Nigeria has been dominated by women and it is in a bid to encourage these women to do more, that the MOWA skills centre was established in order for women to add up to whatever they are currently engaged in irrespective of their profession or status in the society.’’

The ‘Train a woman Train a Nation’ initiative which would last for a duration of three months is open to all women from Cross River State, status, age and locality notwithstanding and the skills include: cosmetology, fashion and design, snail farming, bee production, pastry and baking. Other programmes include: shoe making, beads and hat making, Ankara accessories and hair dressing. Interestingly, the women would be empowered financially at the end of the training and they have been equally sensitized on how to access loan facilities through the Federal Government Enterprise Programme (GEEP) as a means of boosting their businesses.

The expected outcome of the training is that the level of poverty in the State would be reduced, the women would be adequately skilled and in return be able to train others as well as start up their own businesses, generate employment opportunities, become self reliant and above all, be able to utilize the business opportunities available in the State especially during the Carnival Calabar period to showcase their acquired skills and contribute to the Internally Generated Revenue of the State.

Although, the initiative is presently funded by the State Government, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) which is a parastatal of the Federal Government has identified and is already partnering with the Ministry to train women. This is therefore a call to corporate organizations and well to do individuals who share in this vision of implementing programmes and projects that are geared towards enhancing the quality of life of Women to come and assist MOWA in this laudable stride. There is no doubt that when a woman is trained, the nation is impacted. — with Freedom Ejom and Stella Oreme Odey.