The Association of Nigerian Women Business Network (ANWBN), has rolled out an advocacy campaign for interventions in housing development and policy change in property rights for women so as to bring about their freedom from cultural, religious and financial barriers hindering them from owning property.
ANWBN in a communique’ presented by Olakitan Wellington, Advocacy Committee Chairperson after a one day conference on property right for women in Abuja called for a continued movement for women equality to bring the ‘Occupy NASS’ project to a logical end.
According to the communique’, females will soon sponsor a bill for women rights in property matters to enable business development activities for women to be put in place to ensure that they have the economic capacity to own properties.
The communique also advocated for more women to be encouraged to own properties, to increase their ability to present collateral which is key to obtaining loans to build their business.
It further harped on the need for women to be properly educated on the property rights, property market and their interactions.
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“This will enable people to know the issues, challenges, opportunities and solutions. Women should be educated on what the constitution says about their rights. Our problem is not really about the absence of laws or regulations, but their implementation.
“We therefore need to advocate for implementation of laws, even when they are made. Advocacy and Education should be taken seriously by all the associations.
“The ANWBN which is a Coalition of 63 women business organisations asked each of the associations to work towards breaking the social norms passed on to the generation of girls which limits their abilities. They called for the development of women Information centres across all the states of the federation”, the communique’ reads in parts.
The communique’ reiterated the importance of documentations which it said should be taken seriously by all women, as “at whatever level you own property, proper documentation should be in place, to forestall future challenges.”
Modupe Oyekunle, ANWBN National had explained that the conference created opportunities for the women to critically consider issues of high rate gender inequality; lack of power, access to finance for women in business, issues of road network for easy distribution of goods and services among others.
Oyekunle also said the coalition used the occasion to present a document on property rights of women in Nigeria to expose the stakeholders to the problems and its impact on the society.
She said: “In Nigeria we have so many communities where women do not have rights to farm, talk more of building. These are few ways the rights of women to property are hindered.
“Equality for the coalition is not requesting for the positions of men. Rather, it is giving the women their place of priority in the affairs of the country. We obviously need to find possible solution to address these salient problems”.
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