The need for government and leaders across boards to initiate policies and programmes that will ensure women at all levels are empowered with their potentials actualised leading to national development was brought to the fore at the recently held ‘Empower Her Conference’.

Also brought to the fore at the conference was the need for women to have clarity on their life goals, equipping themselves with knowledge, keying into opportunities and strategically positioning themselves for greatness.

The two day conference also featured entrepreneurship training, interactive and networking sessions where business leaders and successful entrepreneurs shared their personal experiences and opinions on ways of achieving career and business success.

Speaking at the Empower Her Conference at the Redemption City, Ogun State, Tolulope Duncan, the convener of the event, stressed the need for women’s voices to be heard.

Her words:”‘Empower Her Conference’, was birthed five years ago, it was due to the fact that women believe that they are second class citizens and for us, we believe that both male and female have every right and potential to become what ever they want to achieve in life.

“I believe that a lot of women need to be empowered, women needs to be in the economic space, especially what happening in the country today, insecurity, unemployment, inflation and poverty.

“You will agree with me that women too have some to bring to the table. That is why we put up this conference to ensure that women are relevant and financially stable.We want to ensure that that at least 50 women are empowered in their businesses, especially in their entrepreneurship spaces.”

Addressing Gender inequality, she noted: “We cannot really eradicate gender inequality, what we can do is to bring it to a minimal level whereby the voices of women can be heard.We believe that with sensitization and awareness, we can reduce gender inequality and bias.”

On the role of government in promoting gender equality, Duncan stated further:”The political leaders and government have a lot of to play in supporting by supporting initiatives like what we are doing here.

“We believe that with government support, initiatives like this can spread and get to the grassroots.

“Is not all about about NGOs coming together to promote and support projects like this.Government has all the necessary resources and capacity to empower Nigerian women.”

Titilope Adeboye, the keynote speaker,
in her presentation, urged participants to have a clear vision on focus on what they want to achieve, stressing that they don’t need huge resources to succeed in their chosen entrepreneurship projects.

On his part, one of the event facilitators, Bayo Babatunde, held that if Nigerian women maximise fintech and are equipped with the right skills and knowledge, they will take their rightful place in the society and contribute their quota in nation building.

The importance of the programme and projected outcome, he shared “is to empower women in business and to help them become better businesswomen that will make impact in the economy.”

He continued: “I see participants who are eager to make impact in the society.I believe that if they put to practice what they have learnt from this conference, there would be noticeable changes in their businesses and lives.

“The conference is important because we have to provide a level playing ground for everyone irrespective of gender.This kind of programme and training has been always been given to men, but is important that women are empowered.

“Women are the home builders, and if they are not provided with the necessary resources, information and enabling environment to thrive, we not have the kind of society that we desire.”

On seeing opportunities in Nigeria, he stated:”There are opportunities in Nigeria, during the training I mentioned that we need to leverage on trends.Fintech is the thing now, people are taking of the opportunities that it offers, many people are even moving away from traditional banking.

“Women must position themselves for opportunities and also spot a market gap that required to be filled. If entrepreneurs can spot a market gap, they can achieve some of their business goals and objectives.”