Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics gave out a report on the nation’s poverty index, where Katsina State ranked among the top five states with highest rate of poverty. Although states have reacted to the reports, analysts believe that it was a true reflection of the nation’s poverty judging by available indices.
Katsina Sate has a population of over six million people, with women constituting about three million, yet most of them survive below the poverty line in the state due to different factors including socio-cultural practices.
This situation has for long precipitated the calls for aggressive efforts in designing some intervention for women empowerment in the state.
As a demonstration of its commitment to this, the state government recently organised a seven-day intensive vocational training on hand bag and children’s wear items, involving over 230 women participants, selected from the 34 local government areas of the state.
The training which was co-coordinated by the state ministry of women affairs in conjunction with the Opportunities Industrialization Centre International (OICI), comprises mostly of housewives and young spinsters, who received extensive training on the art of hand bags and children’s wear production, aimed at female gender self reliance and economic empowerment.
The participants, who were divided into groups for the seven-day long training programme, were able to produce beautiful hand bags and children’s wear at the end of the exercise. The working facilities given to the participants for motivation included N5,000 training allowance, feeding for the period of the training and the provision of equipments to support continuation after the training.
LEADERSHIP gathered that while the state government provided funding and other necessary incentives for the smooth conduct of the training, OICI, an organisation supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria as part of its corporate social responsibility, provided the entrepreneurship training to the women on how to start and manage a business.
According the commissioner for women affairs, Dr Asmau Abdullahi, whose ministry was the coordinating organ, “The idea was informed by the need to empower women in line with the state government’s drive to ensure self- sufficiency among the women folk, and by implication, improve the living condition of a significant section of the citizenry”.
He added, “Women empowerment is synonymous with empowering the whole community. This training is the first phase of the series of trainings outlined by the ministry with the support of the state government, and the first lady, Hajiya Fatima Shema whose organisation, Service to Humanity Foundation, has been in the fore-front of supporting women empowerment initiatives in the state.
“Economic empowerment for women and other vulnerable groups has continued to occupy a priority place in the state government’s scheme of things, and we shall remain committed to the challenges of women empowerment as this training will be sustained till a sizeable number of the women folk benefit from it”.
Analysts have lauded the training programme, describing it as a welcome development, just as they harped on the need to ensure its sustenance so as to widened the opportunity and facilitate for more women participation.
While presenting certificates and allowances to the benefitting women, the permanent secretary, Katsina State ministry of women affairs, Dr Talatu Nasir disclosed that, women who distinguish themselves during the training would be selected for further training at the Kano based Dangote Foundation.
While reaffirming the determination of the ministry to ensure sustenance of the training, Dr Nasir advised the beneficiaries to ensure utilizing the skills acquired noting that “we expect to see you train other women as knowledge and skills are best utilized when shared”.
The programme manager (training services) of? the Opportunities Industrialization Centre International (OICI), Julius Abu Ameh, who presented some of the certificates to the participants, expressed satisfaction at the training, describing it as one of the best so far coordinated by the organisation.
According to him, “I am really impressed with the entire exercise, especially with the bags I saw, because if you take the bags to any market, nobody will think it was locally made”.
He noted that it is an outcome of commitment and dedication to the task of alleviation poverty, which must be supported by all and sundry.
A representative of the benefitting women, Hafsat Yusuf who could not hide her emotion, commended the state government for the opportunities given to women assuring that the skills acquired would be judiciously utilized.
Yusuf said, “I have the mandate of my colleagues who have benefitted from this noble gesture of the state government, to not only express our heartfelt appreciation, but to also reaffirm our determination and pledge to ensuring that the training we have got is put into effective use”.