The Scaling up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) has said it was sharing experiences of women in business and building partnerships in a bid to enhance capacities for women who are into the business of scaling up nutrition.
Focused on its mission to strengthen private sector contributions towards improving nutrition in Nigeria, SBN put together a forum titled: ‘Business Through a Gender Lens’ in a bid to share experiences from women and to understand what their challenges are and proffer solutions.
Speaking during the forum, Ibiso Ivy King-Harry, SBN national coordinator said SBN decided to do a rapid assessment to be able to find out what the current challenges of women in business are.
King-Harry said the network is also interested in key people to partner with to better support women.
“As an organisation, we are looking at how we can mainstream gender into our programmes. So this particular programme is focused on women but we are looking widely at gender. We know that women are the most disadvantaged in society and in order to support them better, we need to hear from them, so we know solutions to put in place,” she explained.
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She assured that the feedback from the participants will shape SBN’s framework on how to support women businesses and the outcomes will be used to better shape the strategies to support them.
She also assured that when there are opportunities for grants, SBN will create gender equality components so that women will also be able to access the funding.
With presence in Nigeria for five years, she said SBN has grown significantly with more businesses contributing to improving nutrition in Nigeria and each business has made a signed commitment which the network is able to monitor every year to ensure they are keeping to those commitment areas.
Speaking during the panel season, Tijjani Aliyu, director-general, Kano Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (KACCIMA) said KACCIMA is one of the oldest chambers of commerce with membership strength exceeding 3,000 with 30 percent constituting of women in various businesses.
“We support women in almost every aspect of the business. We help women access finance and for those who are interested in agriculture, we provide them with free lands. Women are trained to fit into the opportunities available. In KACCIMA, we have trade groups focused on women and youths empowerment,” Aliyu explained.
Rosemary Achibong, Cross River State Commissioner for Commerce who was also one of the panellists at the forum commended SUN Business Network for putting up a programme focused on empowering women.
Achibong noted that Cross River State women have always been emancipated and have been actively involved in agriculture, industrialisation, hospitality, export and tourism, adding that with the soil texture in the state and favourable climate conditions, women can grow several farm produce.
To support women pursuing their dreams, she said the state has put in place intervention for loans, support for women in exports and entrepreneurship.
Also speaking at the event, Aisha Usman, permanent secretary, Kebbi State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and Chairperson, SCFN said more than 40 percent of Kebbi population are women, so the need to support them in businesses.
Usman said despite this significant number of women in Kebbi State, they have not been able to change the narrative because they lack access to funds, financial advisories and farmlands to aid their businesses.
She, however, said the ministry is bridging the gap by establishing 21 skills acquisition centres in 21 local government areas of the state in a bid to train women and empower them in their strive to set up and sustain their businesses.
