By Justina Auta
The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs says it will partner with the UN Women on its digital agricultural platform to harness the benefits for rural women in Nigeria.
Mrs Pauline Tallen, Minister of Women Affairs, disclosed this in a statement by Mr Olujimi Oyetomi, Director, Press and Public Relations, of the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.
She stated this when she received Ms Beatrice Eyong, the new UN-Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS.
Tallen said the digital platform of the UN-Women aligns with the Ministry’s World Bank assisted project on women economic empowerment, “Nigeria for Women Project (NFWP)”.
She noted that the main challenge affecting women was poverty, hence the need for the government and other stakeholders to prioritise and channel resources toward addressing it.
“If government could focus more on empowering women, it will not only change the lives of women alone, but jump-start the economy.
“More resources should be devoted to women empowerment projects. Once a woman is empowered, the home and lifestyle of her family will change and the nation will be healthier and better-off,” she said.
The minister stressed the need for more support and advocacies for the empowerment of many more Nigerian women, especially those in the rural areas.
Earlier, Eyong said the digital agriculture platform would enhance economic and financial capacities of rural communities, introduce them to digital economy and prepare them for climate change.
She said that the platform had been applied in Mali, Senegal and other parts of Africa and had been embraced and met with many successes to the benefit of rural women farmers and even men.
Eyong revealed that the UN-Women in Nigeria are developing a “new strategy note” which is the organisation’s plan for the next five years on the needs of women, girls and the vulnerable in the country.
The country’s Representative said they had incorporated field-data from six geo-political zones covering 36 States of Nigeria into the document.(NAN)
