French Govt/IITA Partners With Oyo Govt Through Women Affairs, Agric, Education Ministries & Oysada To Empower 400 Women Through WATEA Project

“Empowerment of women is the easiest way to entrench sustainable development. Empirical data gathered on bank loans shows that women are very credit worthy. When the female demographic is empowered, it trickles down to the most vulnerable in our society because no woman will have money in her pocket and ignore the needs of her children

Empowerment of women is also critical for the reduction and elimination of societal ills such as the Out of School Children menace, drug abuse and other malfeasances”

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Hon Mrs Toyin Balogun stated these during an engagement with the Country Director of the Women in Agricultural Technical Education and Apprenticeship in Nigeria (WATEA) Project; Ms Zaina Sore Koutou in company of the Project Coordinator for the South West Mr Onasanya on the 19th of July

This was sequel to an engagement of the donor sponsoring this project, the French Govt rep and the Country Director Ms Zaina Sore Koutou with His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde few days ago

The WATEA

team were on hand to make a presentation to the Commissioner and her team on the scope of the proposed collaboration with Oyo State

Ms Zaina Koutou explained that this initiative is intended to benefit 3,000 students in Technical Colleges nationwide, 80% of which must be women.

In Oyo State, 500 students of the Technical College in Ibarapa are to benefit, 400 of which must be women

The projected outcomes from this collaboration between the French Govt /IITA and Oyo State Govt include but not limited to the following:

1. Technologies, insights and experiences from developed Countries are incorporated into the curriculum of study at the Technical College in 3 sectors of Agriculture.
2. This will make graduates of this institution either more employable or provide them with capacity to become employers of labour themselves.
3. This will greatly reduce the unemployment index with positive implications for Food Security
4. There is also an Exchange Program element to this collaboration with travel to France incorporated to enable beneficiary students experience first hand modern agricultural best practices

According to Hon Balogun, this is a very timely collaboration given that agriculture is one of the corner stones of the Governor Seyi Makinde led govt through which he intends to solve the challenge of Food Security and to diversify the earning base of the State.

The Commissioner stressed that she bears a burden to empower the large proportion of indigent women in the State through interventions from various sectors of the economy, one of these being agriculture where we have a comparative advantage of arable land compared to other south west States

The Commissioner stated that she’s also presently in talks with Amo Sanders, a notable entity in agribusiness with a view to training and empowering some of our indigent women through Noiler Poultry Farming which will not only empower our women economically, it also has implications for reducing the malnutrition index and stunting in our children, Food Quality and Food Security

She stated further that both her ministry and OYSADA are presently collaborating on various interventions, Works In Progress, which will see a lot of our women who are presently unemployed and indigent getting involved in the agricultural value chain from production of food crops like tomatoes, pepper, onions, rice etc. to cash crops and allied products like shea butter, cotton (for the manufacture of Aso Oke), aloe vera to animal husbandry, Goatry etc. Also, another agribusiness based collaboration with the World Bank is in the offing.

Part of her vision is to with His Excellency’s approval, incorporate as many of our indigent women/female farmers as possible into the agricultural value chain  in each of the 33 local govts to reduce food scarcity and the possibility of Oyo State serving as the food basket of the South West in the first instance and the entire Southern Nigeria in the larger picture

She also explained that the Ministry is planning to host an engagement with female farmers in the State soon with a view to understanding the peculiar challenges they face which militate against their ability to perform maximally

This will enable the ministry come up with creative  solutions which will help maximize their productive capacity

According to the Country Rep of the French govt/IITA collabo Mrs Zaina Sore, the WATEA project is born out of the fact that hitherto, little attention has been given to the attractiveness and quality of Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training in Nigeria which can contribute substantially to increasing productivity, resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector.

Ms Soure explained that young women are not exposed to  agricultural technical education, which is perceived as outdated and lacking in decent job prospects but the demand for qualified agrifood technicians is significant and increasing which is presenting an opportunity for young women to access gainful employment or self employment.

She stated that the project will operate in six pilot States which is organized into three regional clusters based on their strategic geographic location and they are: Kwara and Oyo States for the South West, Anambra and Enugu States for the South East while Kano and Jigawa States are taken from the North.

Soure stressed further that the project is in two tranches and the training will be for two years at the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora (OYSCATECH) and the collaborating MDAs are Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), Ministries of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion, Agriculture and Education

Mrs Kemi Omotosho

INFORMATION OFFICER

MIN OF WOMEN AFFAIRS & SOCIAL INCLUSION