Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Bolaji Dada, says some 48,000 households have been impacted by the state’s social intervention programmes under which women receive cash transfers and acquire vocational skills.
The intervention programme is aimed at tackling poverty especially among women in the state.
Dada, who stated this while briefing State House journalists on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration, said over 1,050 rural women received intensive training towards boosting agricultural production and giving the beneficiaries equal access to market.
According to the commissioner, the state government, in the last two years, supported women in achieving gender equality, self-reliance, skill balance, inclusion in social security systems and stable means of livelihood.
Dada said her ministry, in collaboration with the Office of the Sustainable Development Goals and Investment (SDG & I), supported 2,704 Lagos residents whose means of livelihood had been disrupted by Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. She added that 500 women were assisted with N20,000 each through Rural Women Grants from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
“In the last two years, WAPA, through the women affairs department, organised series of programmes and activities aimed at improving the status of women and making them economically independent. To increase the total GDP for income generation, financial growth and stability, we embarked on supporting women through direct cash intervention and capacity building.
“Over 48,000 women from different households directly benefited from the state government’s mega empowerment project. Our agricultural training for rural women on cultivation of vegetables, cassava planting and cultivation, garri processing and other arable crops benefited 1,050 women. We trained 250 women through an empowerment workshop on intercrop of maize and cassava with demonstration plots for practical knowledge.”
The commissioner said the skill acquisition department of her ministry yearly produced 6,000 graduates across its centres, pointing out that the unit had expanded the scope of the skill programmes to include production of industrial gas cooker and oven undertaken by the welding and fabrication department for revenue generation purpose.
WAPA, she further said, also collaborated with the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Board (LASTVEB) to review the training syllabus of the state-owned skill acquisition centres, leading to the award of certificate of competence to graduates of the centres.
The development, the commissioner disclosed, has created a seamless movement of interested graduates of the Lagos skill centres to further their vocational training in tertiary institutions without inhibition.
