… As WAPA Empowers 1000 Widows With Cash Gifts

The Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) on Wednesday, joined other nations of the world to celebrate this year’s International Widows’ Day with the presentation of cash gifts to 1,000 widows as livelihood support from the State Government.

The First Lady of Lagos State, Dr. (Mrs.) Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, who made the cash presentations to the widows at an event organised by the Ministry, held at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, said that the day had been set aside to focus on effective actions and advocacy on widows’ plight.

The wife of the State Governor, represented by Mrs. Abimbola Idowu, the wife of Ojo Local Government Chairman, gave an assurance that the present administration is committed to rendering necessary assistance to widows, just as she implored everyone to ensure that widows of all ages and their children are extended equal opportunities for employment and qualitative education.

On her part, the Honourable Commissioner, Mrs. Bolaji Dada stated that the gesture was one of several of other initiatives that Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s administration designed to identify with widows in the State, particularly through empowerment programmes targeted at self-reliance and economic growth.

While empathising with the widows, Mrs. Dada said that the State Government is exploring different avenues to ameliorate poverty and lessen the economic burden occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the vulnerable.

“The importance of this programme is to alleviate the economic hardship and possibly empower women with the aim of reducing poverty amongst beneficiaries, including young widows as well as children”, she stated.

The Commissioner, who bemoaned the plight of most widows, asserted that “Many widows had to go through dehumanising experiences in the name of customs, others are sexually abused, forced into unwanted marriages and in some cultures, they are cut off from inheriting their spouses’ property”.

These common ill-treatments, she said, leave most of the victims at the mercy of hostile in-laws, who throw them and their children out into the streets, thus, condemning the children’s fate to inadequate care and incomplete basic education.

Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of WAPA, Mrs. Oluyemi Kalesanwo informed that Lagos has promised to leave no woman behind in its efforts, noting that the Ministry increased the number of beneficiaries for this year’s Widow’s Day celebration.

She revealed that the Ministry is already working with the Lagos State House of Assembly to ensure that more widows in Lagos State benefit from the plans, programmes and policies of the government.

The representative of Family Care International, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Mrs. Grace Alexander, who spoke at the event, commended the Lagos State Government for celebrating the widows with cash gifts and the provision of start-up packs as a way of empowering them.

Recall that globally, every 23rd of June is set aside to create awareness about the plight of women that have lost their spouses. The day focuses on highlighting solutions to these problems.

LASG

ForAGreaterLagos

CAPTIONS:

PIX 1: Beneficiaries of the Cash gifts at the commemoration of International Widows’ Day.

PIX 2: (L-R) Mrs. Olasunkanmi Adejoke Oshodi; Director, Skills Acquisition Development Unit, Mrs. Olanrewaju Lawal; Director, Finance and Accounts (WAPA) and a recipient of the cash gift at the commemoration of International Widows’ Day

PIX 3 : (L-R) Wife of the Chairman, Ojo Local Government, Mrs. Abimbola Idowu, representing the First Lady of Lagos State; Commissioner for WAPA, Mrs. Cecilia Bolaji Dada; Mrs. Olu Asodun of the National Council of Women Society who received a cash gift; the Permanent Secretary (WAPA), Mrs. Oluyemi Kalesanwo and a Director in WAPA, Mrs. Funke Shyllon at the 2021 International Widows’ Day

PIX 4: Free medical screening for beneficiaries of the Y2021 International Widows’ Day initiative

Lately the media and social media has been busy over a young girl of 21 that murdered her married boyfriend, a media mogul. With a lot of comments from the moralistic society of ours that will never look at the remote causes.

Blablabla, everyone is on the moral standing blaming the girl that killed the man ! Yes, murder is bad but let’s look at the motive, her nurture (society ) and her nature ( psychological make up) let’s stop acting as Blackman that is totally known to be emotional and less logical! Let’s ask ourselves salient and silent questions like , how did we get here ? Let’s stop blaming the dead man or the girl and look at the bigger pictures

Parent accepting money from their kids without asking questions, wives happy husband drives big car without asking questions, pastors accepting big tithes without asking questions, young men admiring girls that use phone of 400k without any visible source of income ….all these things lead to the society producing girls as young as 21 called Chidinma

But, I grew up in the East, showiness wasn’t part of our culture? It is rare to see a man celebrating birthdays like 40th , 50th or some flimsy house warning birthday. We never did it , couldn’t remember my dad doing it. (he was okay financially)but didn’t and I couldn’t remember my friends parents either doing it. So I don’t get it where we took this showiness from. It puts people in the harm’s way, and religious institutions aren’t helping matter. If you don’t drive good car or dress well, you might not be comfortable in any church today , that is the level of showiness! It leads people to do terrible terrible things !

That (showmanship ) has been the black culture, we try to do something or acquire material wealth not to assist folks or give back to the society but to oppress and that is our motive. Unlike the whites, they might be a bit humbler and descreet when they are rich . You rarely know ! They don’t even want you to call them by any time or Mr. They prefer their names, simplicity! But here,you must add sir, chief, pastor, apostle, deacon , arch , bar, etc…. unnecessary showiness, very disgusting attitude of ours !

How can a girl like that , 21 yrs be thinking of murder, at that age I was busy with looking for my project topic and dealing with carryover ! I mean my mum was late and I can’t afford to fail or not to graduate irrespective of all odds. I don’t blame the girl per say! I blame parenting !

We as parents leave the critical and focus on ridiculous.i always ask questions in my house, when did this come , who brought this,, why this …oh I talk too much! I can’t stop talking! The last thing anyine would do is to think you can impress me with anything!

If it’s a car, I have driven many and I don’t think you can impress me with that , I have a phone so you can’t ignore me with your billionaire phone! I am contended as a man not your house, because by the grace of God we aren’t sleeping under the bridge .

The problem is on the society. The parents that have refused to tell the child that hardwork pays or accepts anything that she brings without asking questions. The pastor that focuses on preaching of financial favours all the time and let my enemies suffer all the times and not telling the young ones that hard work pays, that it is wrong to follow people’s husband’s irrespective of the social engineering of men ! As not asking questions where tithes and offerings are coming from or source

The society has lost morals ! The young ones are just waiting time bombs ! They just don’t want to work, you can’t recruit them, if you employ them in businesses they will steal you to bankruptcy! You can’t hire them either, they don’t know anything all they just want to do is to blow. We have many Chidinma amongst us all , just that this one lady the sugar daddy died in her room in Cement axis of Lagos just few weeks ago !

The truth is that most of all these girls will never want to date single men, they see them as never do well, they are always falling for married men irrespective of the rings. I know what I am talking and it’s quite unfortunate that they believe that they can’t build a sustaining relationship, I see it as avarice and lack of contentment and focus on the side of the ladies and young guys , up your game .

Do I blame the man? I am not going to do that because I will not be judgemental here and I will not also blame the Chidinma, I am laying the blames on the society, on the parenting, on the churches, pastors , priests that have left the word of God to preach materialism, I am blaming the media for promoting amoral acts as success e.g big brother Africa where people are rewarded for having sex outside or doing nothing apart from smoking loud, shisha and Colorado! I am blaming our stupid elders that are in offices of power that have nothing to show for morals but steal and be corrupts forgetting that the young ones are watching and will want to “blow” I don’t know if they re fuses .

I am blaming you that is reading this for not speaking up, I am blaming that mother that would not allow anyone to correct her and her children, I am blaming the mother that would wear the daughter skimpy things from childhood for her to start focusing her mind on her shapes and men not books and future.i am blaming the father for not Manning up ! I am blaming us all not the Chidinma. We all have produced and manufactured the Chidinma. You can’t f..king exonerate yourself! You are guilty, the society is guilty and we must all head back to drawing board. We are just too terrible, bad. Corrupt and amoral in this country or society of us irrespective of our religiiusity. Nobody says the truth again ! It’s that bad and we will keep producing many Chidinmas.

Don’t blame her, blame the society that produced her!

©Emeka Nwosu

Foodline, can we know when you started and what prompted this?

The idea was birthed over a year ago while I was working on the Island and did not have time to go out for lunch and specifically was looking for a way to order food from specific caterers. Every day, people all over big cities like Lagos struggle with their daily food purchases. They experience difficulty getting prepared food and drinks. Food Line solves this problem. Our app is an e-commerce app in which users can sign in as either a customer or a seller, and the users that sign up as sellers can sell their items to prospective paying customers

You said that you are opened to investors and partners, why?

Because I feel the platform can be a good investment for potential investors and also provide more channels for further expansion into other territories. We strongly believe in the huge potentials of the Nigerian market, we are looking at expansion, we have to be in other cities like Port Harcourt, Onitsha etc. and this is where we need investors.

How many downloads have you had this past one year?

Approximately 1000, we are just a new firm and no day goes without us having some new download from various playstores be it Android or Apple. People have been ordering great foods using our user-friendly mobile app to do that and this is what encourages us.

Do you think that restaurants are eager to sign up and if yes, what are the advantages?

Yes, they are eager and the advantages they get are a wider customer base and therefore more patronage. Signing up gives the restaurant a wider market because we have you placed in our website and mobile app. Over the time, your outlets get periodic reviews and this is good from the brand or restaurant. The advantages of signing up is immense.

Do you foresee expanding to other parts of Nigeria apart from Lagos?

Yes, we plan expanding to Abuja, Ibadan, Enugu, Owerri and Port Harcourt but we are taking it one step at a time, that is why we need investors to be with us on this journey. Paucity of funds has hampered this expansion project but we will get there as the year goes by.

 Do you think that the government have done enough to support SMEs like yours especially NISRAL and BOI?

I believe that Government can do better. They might not be focusing on startups like us especially in the IT ecosystem, by I strongly advise them to look at our angle, though they have been trying through capacity building, interventions and policy statement but they can do better.

What are the challenges that you face?

Poor infrastructure like bad roads, epileptic power etc; we have them numerous from low skillset to logistic challenges to high cost of doing business.

 Have you partnered with Ministry of Tourism and Hotel Association to drive this?

Not yet, but we have plans of doing so in the near future. We are looking at engaging them at various levels from state to federal, also we are engaging the hoteliers and food suppliers. These processes take time but we are doing it one step at a time.

What are the reviews that you have gotten lately?

Mostly 5 star -positive, the reviews we have on the Google Playstore is impressive, you can check it out. These are testimonies of those that have downloaded and used our apps, it is encouraging to see people appreciate what we do.

What are we to expect from you this second part of the year?

To do more public awareness and get more orders for our vendors and in the process more variety and quality food for our end users. We believe that we will be taking these services to other parts of the nation and get people know that they can order foods easily using their phones via our mobile app.

I believe that Government can do better. They might not be focusing on startups like us especially in the IT ecosystem, by I strongly advise them to look at our angle, though they have been trying through capacity building, interventions and policy statement but they can do better.

The determination to build a new Africa by repositioning Nigeria, the most populous nation in the continent, via Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology, is being reinforced yet again. Speaking at the virtual Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition 2021, earlier today, the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, was full of confidence in his conviction that Nigeria will lead Africa in its economic diversification.

“Africa, particularly Nigeria, with a growing population and dwindling revenue from oil, have put significant pressure on the economy. There is a need to harness other areas to diversify our economy. Emerging technology is one of these areas, and will play an important role in economic diversification, if properly harnessed,” he proclaimed.

Mallam Abdullahi, who was delivering a goodwill message at the conference themed; ‘Building a New Africa with AI & Blockchain’, stated that digital technologies are changing the world at a faster pace than previously experienced waves of technological innovation. He further clamored for Nigeria, to accelerate growth and modernize its economy through the development of a digital-led growth strategy for the Nigerian economy. “It is pertinent to note that despite the economic shocks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the growth was observed in the economies with viable digital economies,’’ he said.

“Digital economy has been identified as an engine of growth; hence Nigeria can harness it as a driver of growth and innovation,” advised Mallam Abdullahi.

The NITDA boss affirmed that, the WBG Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) flagship initiative supports the digital transformation strategy for Africa, prepared by the African Union (AU), the DE4A initiative also recognizes that digital economy can help to accelerate the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the World Bank Group’s twin goals.

He recounted that recently, a call to action was made with the unveiling of the “Economic Sustainability Plan 2020” which seeks to put technology at the forefront of driving development in Nigeria. “This conference is a meeting point for professionals, practitioners, and policymakers to brainstorm on the best ways of harnessing these technologies to the advantage of the citizenry,” added Mallam Abdullahi.

“For Nigeria, a country in dire need to diversify its economy, digital economic activities are key for diversification because they transcend all aspect of human endeavours and the economic sector,’’ he said.

He asserted that at NITDA, the development and utilization of emerging technologies is one of the strategic pillars for the 2021 -2024 Roadmap and Action Plan. To drive this pillar, he said, is the combined effort of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and Office for Nigeria Digital Innovation (ONDI) both subsidiaries of NITDA.

“We are already collaborating and will always be willing to partner with stakeholders and researchers to bring AI, Blockchain, and other emerging technologies to support our economic diversification and sustainability plan for the country,” DG affirmed.

He reiterated that, the focus on the economic advancement of Sub-Saharan Africa, leveraging emerging technologies, specifically; AI, Blockchain, IoT, and 5G is highly commendable, apt and timely.

He finally urged stakeholders present at the event to make necessary partnerships and collaborations towards making Nigeria a leading knowledge and digital economy by 2030.
Accordingly, he commended the Digital Africa, organizers of the conference for their commitment to the cause of building a digital economy for Africa.

The keynote speaker of the event, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, in his speech, nudged Africa in taking advantage of the unprecedented quantities of data, now being generated on sentiment, behaviour, human health, commerce, communications, migration and more.

“Adoption of AI solutions is expected to increase tremendously in the next few years and competition among major AI companies is expected to be intense,” said Prof. Danbata.

He noted that, in a recent report published by Markets and Markets (M&M), the global AI market size is projected to grow from 58.3 billion dollars in 2021 to 309.6 billion dollars by 2026, it is a compound of enormous growth rate of 39.7% during the forecast period.

He explained that BlockChain is the foundation for crypto currency such as bitcoin; one of the newest technologies that has received extensive global attention in recent times. BlockChain serves as an immutable measure which allows transactions take place in addition to a live manner. BlockChain based applications are springing up, covering numerous fields including financial services, refutation systems, Internet of Things (IoT), health and so on.

Prof. Danbata made reference to the ‘Emergent Research’, a research consulting firm forecast on small businesses, projected that the global BlockChain market of 180.7 million dollars in 2019 is anticipated to reach 1.12 billion dollars by the year 2027. It is a compound growth rate of 25.6%. One major implication of this revelation is that a robust and reliable broadband infrastructure and advanced technology, such as the 5th Generation Network (5G), are required to unleash the huge economic potentials of AI and BlockChain in every country.

Prof. Danbata posits that Africa, and indeed Nigeria, must be positioned to take advantage of this huge revenue in AI technologies, BlockChain especially, in the next 5 years to enable a digital economy.