First Bank, UN Women advocate increased female investment for speedy development

Ms Beatrice Eyong, Country Representative to UN Women Nigeria and ECOWAS, has called for increased and wholistic investment into women and girls activities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)5.

Eyong made the call at a Women Empowerment Webinar on Wednesday with the theme, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”, organised by First Bank in collaboration with UN Women.

She said if collaborative funding was not increased toward achieving Goal 5 for gender equality and empowerment, 340 million women and girls would could go into extreme poverty by 2030.

She said poverty was being feminised in Africa and called for deliberate policies and investments in female reproductive activities, adding that funding techs that help women conserve time would create nine million jobs.

She urged all stakeholders to go back to the drawing board and and set targets for actualisation of SDG 5, goals which cover all areas limiting potentials of women and girls.

Eyong thanked the bank for adopting positive measures, saying, “no institution, government or company can tackle gender issues alone, hence, the need for collaboration”.

“I congratulate Firstbank and other banks, including the private sector that is actually showing the way in terms of giving women access to decision making positions.

“Statistics show that at least 20 per cent or even 22 per cent of top managerial positions are provided for women in the private sector, especially in the banks. This is very good,” said.

She added that women were lagging behind and cannot efficiently and effectively have sustainable development except intentional measures were adopted to reverse the trend.

She said, “Until we have an equilibrium between the sexes, that is, we have 50 per cent men, and 50 per cent women benefiting, accessing, controlling, deciding, sitting on the table, we are not going to have sustainable development.’’

Earlier, giving a speech in line with International Women’s Day (IWD), Ms Mo Abudu, gave tips on how women could inspire themselves for positive growth.

Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife Media, urged women to surround themselves with people carrying positive energy, remain focused and leverage on knowledge of the young people.

“Women are blessed more than men with guts instincts,” she said.

She said women must contend with two kinds of people; the dream killers and dream makers, adding that both were important in achieving goals.

Abudu advised women to move out of their comfort zones, make sacrifices, invest in personal development, and advocate for themselves by networking.

“If you can think it, you can do it,” she said.

Panelists at the programme shared insights of how to overcome various challenges and how they were doing their bits toward achieving national development and the gender inclusivity.

They thanked First Bank and UN Women for taking quantum leaps yielding results and shared religion insights on why women must embrace entrepreneurship and self development for economic emancipation.

They also spoke against exploitation of women who were unpaid for hard work and contributions to growth of global economies.