Women Affairs Minister Charges Nigerian Girls on Skill Acquisition

The Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, Barrister (Mrs) Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye has called on Nigerian girls to develop themselves through skill acquisition with a view to reducing the number of out of school children and early marriages while also securing a good future for themselves. The Minister made the call Thursday, during the ‘Talk on Importance of Personal Care and Stress Management Among School Girls’ organized by the Malaysian High Commission in Nigeria, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, in Abuja.

She stated that through skill acquisition, young girls will develop capacity that will make them productive and entrepreneurial, thus empowering themselves for self-reliance in order to make better homes while also contributing their quota to the growth and development of the nation. Kennedy-Ohanenye explained that this informed the Ministry’s dogged commitment to the empowerment of Nigerian women with hybrid seedlings and pellets for improved grain and animal production, fish grilling and sewing machines, among others, to enable them to support their families and ensure that their daughters are adequately trained.

The Minister called on Development Partners to also include skills acquisition programmes for young children in their schedules for the country with a view to empowering them to imbue the culture of self-reliance, entrepreneurship and employability early in life. While commending the Malysian Embassy for organizing the Sensitization Talk, Kennedy-Ohanenye advised Nigerian girls to stay away from every negative tendency capable of truncating their ability to develop their capacities as future capable mothers and employers of labour.

Earlier, the Charge d.affaires, Malaysian High Commission, Ms. Sharmini Devi Gopal commended the Ministry for its commitment to the development of children, especially girls, in the country.

Highpoints of the programme include the Presentation of Innovative Projects by Students from the Science and Technology College Garki, Abuja; presentation of sanitary pads to Representatives of some secondary schools in Abuja as well as good will messages from female stakeholders drawn from different walks of life.

Signed

Mrs Grace Njoku

Head, Press and Public Relations