everything matters the air that we
breathe
food we eat water that we drink clothes
we wear sleep rest productivity your
mental health socio-economic development
inclusive growth all of these things
matter and so many other things which I
didn't mention matters war however
equipping girls and women to become
economically active matters a whole lot
and that's what I'm here to discuss
today an airplane or even a jet is
likely to fly safely with two engines as
opposed to with one I've also not heard
of any bird that's capable of flying
with just one wing the same logic should
be applied when discussing economic
prosperity of any country especially a
country like Nigeria that has each
gender representing 50 percent of its
total population if both men and women
are gripped and economically empowered
sustainable economic growth is
attainable and I'm not referring to
sustaining economic growth our current
levels that were seeing that's about 1.9
percent and referring to levels as high
as 5% which we saw six years ago or even
close to double-digit growth which we
see in some other African countries if
you look at the national accounts for
Nigeria let's say the past eight to
twelve quarters
you would see that agriculture accounts
for over 20 percent of total national
output the contribution of women to the
agricultural labor force ranges between
40 to 60 percent however where we look
at agricultural value change there are
disparities when it comes to access to
formal finance for women
the median capital that is available
three female agriculturist is two times
lower than that of her male counterpart
I shall repeat those things in the
median capital available to a female
agriculturist is two times lower than
that of her male counterpart the lack of
ownership of collateral as tradition
releases property rights to women in
addition to the absence of credit
histories have prohibited similar
agriculturists as well as women led
businesses from accessing loans let me
shift to the light manufacturing
industry so that's where you have your
textile and garments leather goods
segments and collectively these segments
account for 23 percent of manufacturing
GDP in Nigeria the light manufacturing
industry contributes largely to the
growth of specific countries like
Ethiopia and Rwanda but it's yet to do
the same here in Nigeria this industry
is largely driven by women and so we
must look for ways to equip women with
skills that will allow them thrive
within this industry improving access to
women or improving financial support for
women releasing an increased number of
businesses it would help to scale up
existing businesses it would help with
boosting economic growth and it would
also help with increasing economic
activity for the country now the Central
Bank of Nigeria and the bank of Industry
has made laudable steps with regards to
increasing access to finance for
everyone including women but the impact
remains minimal and so a whole lot still
needs to be done let's talk about
education education is a powerful tool
and I'm not just referring to the
traditional classroom teaching approach
I'm also referring to the skills
acquisition through experiential
learning
last year I was invited to watch a
documentary it was a previous screening
a documentary titled uprooted
that documentary focused on the
aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency
in northern Nigeria as well as the
changing gender rules that had occurred
after those awful attacks so the primary
providers across households in that area
are the men but after the attacks they
weren't able to provide for their
families because their primary source of
income had been taken away from them so
the farmlands only households with women
that had equipped themselves with
specific skills were able to manage to
do this aftermath so skills like bead
making basket weaving baking sewing
those were the skills that were able to
help the households stay afloat now mind
you these women acquired these skills
before the attacks and without the
consent of their husbands but what
happened they became the financial
cushions for their households when the
chips were down so after watching this
documentary I thought to myself state
governments with support from private
sector need to think of ways to
formalize skills skill acquisition
trainings in their respective states
there is nothing wrong with equipping
women with blue collar job skills so
shifting from the bead making basket
weaving to plumbing welding carpentry
tiling
there's nothing wrong with that these
services are in high demand and supplies
loo because the talent pool is terribly
weak if we are going to move this
country forward it has to be an
all-hands-on-deck approach placing
immense pressure on the mill folks is
not ideal anymore as I said education is
a powerful tool and it can be used as a
contraceptive apart from equipping young
girls with knowledge of family planning
benefits parents with children in school
or with education aspirations for their
kids may choose to have fewer children
basically schooling of schooling often
increases the costs of having children
one economic implication of reduced
child birth is in the countries
increased GDP GDP per capita
now the GDP per capita is a metric does
used to measure the standard of living
of a country and oftentimes used by
investors to make decisions around
foreign direct investments the formula
for that indicator is national output as
a numerator and then population as a
denominator so I know we're putting in
love energy and efforts towards
increasing the numerator which is
national output but at the same time it
is worth considering reducing the pace
of growth of our population weaving
policies that are female focused to
boost productivity from the female
economies equally important a major
concern is the low level of female
participation in decision-making rules
women's collective voice is very faint
when it comes to policy direction and
decision-making not just in Nigeria but
across Africa ramping up efforts towards
increasing the level of female
participation in decision-making in
decision-making rules is important so
the opportunity cost of ignoring the
female economy is terribly expensive we
meaning you and I have a love work to do
yes granted the government have a big
role to play in changing the narrative
but you and I have work to do within our
respective spheres of influence so
whether you're a man or you're a woman
you can pull women up in the corporate
space you can serve as a mentor or
sponsor your respective work please
you can support women let businesses
purchase their goods utilize their
services you can also educate your
domestic staff so your security man your
nanny
the cleaner the driver you can educate
them on the benefits of family planning
the macroeconomic benefits are numerous
and a boost to GDP growth is at the
forefront thank you for being an
attentive audience
[Applause]
[Music]