The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) said Nigerian women had shown resilience and courage in their various businesses despite the challenges women faced in the country.
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The association’s Director-General, Mr Timothy Olawale, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.
Olawale spoke in commemoration of the 2020 International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrated annually on March 8, with the theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”.
He said: “Though there is still a huge gap compared to the men folks, they are, however, making in-roads and contributing positively at the Corporate Board Rooms and the market-place.
“In spite of the challenges, many have excelled and still excelling.”
The director-general said that the challenges facing women include, but not limited to funding; difficulty in balancing responsibilities; fear of failure; inadequate support system; gender inequality and limited knowledge.
Others, according to him, include unfavourable business environment; timidity; lack of mentoring; wrong perception as being the weaker sex.
“In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the need to support female owned businesses in the area of capacity building, employment creation, poverty reduction.
“Also, gender equality; empowerment and provision of an enabling environment to make it possible for them to contribute to economic growth.
“Helping the women-folks to surmount these challenges will be in the best interest of the nation, their contributions to national development can only be imagined, ” Olawale said.
According to the United Nations, IWD is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.