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Osinbajo, Kasali harp on girls’ education to eradicate poverty

By Seye Olumide (Lagos) and Abdulganiyu Alabi (Kaduna)
23 July 2018   |   4:14 am
Wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, and founder, Diamond Lights Women Empowerment Initiatives, Mrs. Adefunke Kasali, have said educating girls is one of the best approaches...

Wife of the Vice President, Dolapo Osinbajo

• 50 women pledge to create jobs
Wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, and founder, Diamond Lights Women Empowerment Initiatives, Mrs. Adefunke Kasali, have said educating girls is one of the best approaches to eradicating poverty and crime, as well as enhancing development in the country.

While noting that southern Nigeria is moving seriously towards that direction, the duo said focus should be shifted to the North, where illiteracy constitutes big threat to the country.

Wife of the founder, Truth Assembly Church, Pastor Yomi Kasali, said the initiative was planning to take its activities to the North Central and North East to help rescue women and girls from the shackles of poverty.

However, 50 women from Kaduna State empowered by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have pledged to create new jobs.

Shortly after receiving a two-week training on baking and event decoration business, the women, aged between 20 and 35 years, who were given free starter packs, said it became imperative for them to give back to the society by employing other women, to ease pressure on their family members.

Speaking at a fund-raising organised by the initiative in Lagos, weekend, Mrs. Osinbajo urged privileged Nigerians to support the government and other organisations working to improve education, “not just for the advantages of the beneficiaries but for our communities and nation.”

Statistics, she said, showed that nations with higher percentage of educated girls developed faster and better than others.

Educating girls and empowering women would be investing in the future of the country, she added.

According to Mrs. Kasali, the rate of girl education in the South is fair at 85 per cent, while in the North; it is below 24 per cent, hence the alarming rate of poverty in the North.

“In the last 12 years, we have educated and empowered 150 girls and women in the (South) West. We plan to do the same in the North, to see what difference we can make.”

Representative of the NPA, Abdullahi Bawa, said the initiative was being replicated all over the country to help eradicate poverty, create employment and give people stable means of income.

He urged the young women to ensure sustainability of the business skills and training imparted in them. “Enormous resources have been expended to ensure you receive adequate training and eventually, self-sufficiency,” Bawa said.

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