Lagos set to encourage women in local production

The Lagos State gov­ernment has reiterat­ed its readiness to en­gender a boost in the production and consumption of locally made goods and take a leading role in the quest for diversification of the nation’s mono-product economy.

This assertion was made by the state’s Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Prince Roti­mi Ogunleye while address­ing the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agricul­ture (NACCIMA) Business Women Group (NAWORG) who paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry at Alausa, Ikeja recently.

Prince Ogunleye said that as part of the state govern­ment’s marketing interven­tion support programmes for operators of the Micro, Small and Medium Enter­prises (MSMEs) sub-sector, his Ministry had organised the first MSME Exclusive Fair in Lagos.

According to him, the fair was aimed at creating a plat­form for MSMEs in the state to showcase their products, enhance their visibility glob­ally and increase patronage of their business.

He proclaimed that many women entrepreneurs actively participated at the exhibition which indicates the appre­ciable size of women operat­ing in the MSME subsector in the state.

The Commissioner there­fore assured the business women group that his Minis­try will always be gender sen­sitive in its policy formulation agenda, to encourage women who are into production.

He also promised the group that the Ministry will look into benefits that could accrue to them in the state’s Industrial Parks and Enterprise Zones.

Speaking earlier at the oc­casion, the NACCIMA Busi­ness Women Group (NA­WORG) Vice Chairperson, Mrs. Anita Nana Okuribido, representing the Chairper­son, Mrs. Alaba Lawson said the group came on a fact find­ing mission on how to create an enabling environment that would facilitate business de­velopment for women entre­preneurs in Lagos State.

According to her, NA­WORG is the umbrella body of all the women in chambers of commerce movements in Nigeria and the membership of the group is open to all women.

The group was commis­sioned to coordinate the ac­tivities of women not only within the Chambers’ move­ment but also women across the West African Region un­der the auspices of ECOWAS Federation of Business Wom­en (ECOWAS-FEBWE).