LAPO Forum Canvasses For Women Development Fund
Stakeholders have enjoined the government to create Women Development Fund as well as evolve practical policies and programmes targeted at promoting women entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
They gave the advice at the 22nd Annual LAPO Development Forum held in Abuja and chaired by Gen. (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon, a former Nigerian head of state. The theme of the Forum was “Women Entrepreneurship Development: Issues, Opportunities, and Approach.
In a 10-point communiqué issued at the end of the programme, they declared that financing women-owned enterprises have the potential to positively influence women’s lives, facilitate Nigeria’s economic growth, and achieve sustainable human development, material prosperity, peace, and progress.
The Forum observed that whereas women play critical and major roles in society, they are often denied their rightful place in decision making and therefore advocated gender-sensitive policies, programmes, and legislation directed at providing the enabling environment for women to thrive as entrepreneurs.
The Forum observed that socio-cultural factors militate against women’s active participation and sustenance in entrepreneurial activities and challenged government agencies to promote enterprise activities to broaden and deepen the scope of their training to rural women entrepreneurs.