The Women in Maritime Africa, Nigeria Chapter has said that the association is set to empower more women Into the maritime sector as their are more potentials to tap into.
Briefing the media recently on the preparedness for the forth coming annual conference of the association, the President of the group, Hajia Bola Muse, said that the 2019 conference of the association would empowered more competent women for effective participation in the maritime industry.
The conference with the theme “Empowering Women For Effective Participation In The Maritime Sector” scheduled to hold on Oct. 15 will aimed at improving women participation in the industry.
Muse urged women from all areas to participate in the conference with many expert in the industry who would assist them on how to excel in the industry like their male counterparts.
She said that WIMA-Nigerian is a sub chapter of WIMAfrica which adopted the maritime strategy 2050 to contribute to the building of Africa’s blue economy.
She added the association provided a platform for training, capacity building, corporate and entrepreneurial development of African women in the maritime sector.
“WIMAfrica was established in Luanda, Angola on the 25thvof March 2015 with the response to the request made by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission(AUC), during her inaugural speech.
” Since inception of WIMA Nigeria in 2017, we have had two dispensations of executives who have been progressively growing the association.
“WIMAfrica had donated giant oven to Makoko Women Fishing community to enable them produce more fish for export and also donated waste bin to Inland Water Ways Authority to support in making our waters clean at all times.
“Between 2017 and 2018, we have formally registered the association and got recognized by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the National Assembly and other national bodies,” she said.
Muse added that the association had undertaken some empowerment programmes including the donation of fish processing and preservation equipment to women in Makoko fishing community in Lagos.
Also speaking at the briefing, Chairman of Conference Committee of WIMA-Nigeria, Foluke Akinmoladun, a maritime Lawyer urged both women and men who intend to encourage women in businesses to take advantage of the conference and exploit the maritime industry.
She said that the conference will feature numbers of well established maritime professionals who will speak on areas of maritime business the audience can developed themselves in.
According to Akinmoladun, the conference will showcase participant from maritime regulators, private sector who will enlightening participants on how to run maritime business with out having difficulties.
She urged stakeholders to participate in the conference as it will be a well invested time which will be affordable and reasonable considering numerous opportunities in the maritime industry which is yet untapped.
She explained further on the need for more Nigerian participation in the maritime sector adding that a lot of foreigners were making money from the country shores as well as through maritime business.
Noting that countries with gender equality would have more economy growth while companies with more women leaders perform better.
