The United Nations (UN) Women has called on stakeholders in the private and public sector to promote inclusiveness by ensuring that women have access to financial resources.
This was the focus of the UN Women and Partners’ Open Day for Southwest, held in Lagos.
Country Representative to UN Women and ECOWAS, Ms Beatrice Eyong, lamented that only 10 per cent of women in Nigeria have access to financial resources for entrepreneurial development and access to public procurement.
She also said gender equality was central to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Nigeria is lagging behind by 40 per cent.
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“We are championing moves to empower and better the lot of women because Nigeria will not attain the SDGs if women are behind. We are 60 per cent not being able to achieve the SDGs, though SDG five, which is gender equality, is central to achieving the SDGs.
“As long as we’re unable to accelerate gender equality we will not be able to accelerate the SDGs, and that’s why we’re here to recognise the fact that we cannot do this job alone. We recognise the fact that we cannot stay in Abuja and do the work, so we’re visiting the six geopolitical zones, this being the third zone that we are visiting,” she said.