FG To Support Women With N108 Billion

Clem Agba, the Minister for State Finance and Budget Planning, has revealed that the Federal Government planned to raise N108 billion women empowerment initiative in the country.

According to him, the move is aimed at furthering the government’s commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women.

He disclosed this on Thursday at the institutional support for government-donor joint funding facility on gender equality and women empowerment meeting in Abuja.

Agba disclosed that an estimated investment of N108 billiomn (approximately US$250m) would be required to address issues such as gender-based violence, which had assumed a significant dimension in Nigeria.

“It is imperative to underscore the urgency of a gender equality and women empowerment joint intervention funding that will serve as a basket fund to address such issues as Gender Based Violence (GBV) that has assumed significant dimension and which is often not reported due to stigmatisation.

“Suffices to reiterate for the umpteenth time that at the moment, an estimated investment of about N108bn (approximately US$250 million, taking into consideration of a 17 per cent inflation.”

Agba added that funding would be directed to different ministries depending on the nature of the initiative.

“There are initiatives that must come from justices, so the funding for that would go to justices.

"There are things to do with health, and the funding will go to the experts in health.

"And there are things to do with education, and there are funds that we necessarily need to give to the Ministry of Women Affairs.

"We are trying to put all these money in the basket because we find out that different donor groups and embassies are duplicating the support that they give, maybe in a particular area and state.

"So we want to have a better coordination mechanism so that we all get to see in the basket what we want to achieve, and the money is distributed across the various ministries that are involved in the women-related issues", he said.