In a bid to make extricate women from the shackles of Socio- cultural limitations -careerwise, Inter -Bau Foundation, SKYE-GIE, alongside other construction industry players, have called for deliberate involvement of women in the construction industry.
Speaking at the maiden launch of Inter-Bua foundation tagged, ‘Construction Tradeswomen Career Fair Day recently in Lagos, the Chairman, Inter -Bau Foundation, Kenneth Onyema, said there are over 150 career and job opportunities in the aforementioned sector, therefore, affirmed that the fate of women does not end in the kitchen nor other meager and Menial jobs but in other reputable jobs, supporting the notion which states that, “What a man can do, a woman can do better.”
At the tradeswomen career fair, Onyema said, in a bid to tackle high rate of unemployment among women in Nigeria, the Foundation kicked off to train more than 4000 women annually, adding that the group aims to transform and equip a significant number of Nigerian youths economically.
According to him, women should stop seeing themselves as good for only tailoring, catering and other minor jobs. He added that, the Foundation was Partnering with some banks and other corporate bodies to train, empower and bankroll women in different craft.
He maintained that the organization has targeted 10,700 women to enroll into the construction industry, while 4000 projects had already been executed, other projects which has taken them to about 50 schools and 10 communities in Lagos and other projects in the pipelines would yield positive results.
“Our four strategic objectives are to train and equip critical mass of Nigerian youths with practical skills for the construction sector; to reduce the high level of youths unemployment by linking them to jobs in construction sector; to engender the construction industry by building the capacities of women and girl child in the industry and to provide mentoring for leadership and development opportunity for young people particularly young girls to build career in the construction sector.
Also Speaking, a representative from the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Babajide Fadikpe, confirmed that about 2700 women have been trained and empowered in different crafts -Carpentering, Electricity, Tiling etc.
“We want to ensure gender balance because we know there is no limit to what a woman can do.
So women should take up the challenge to do better, the willingness is what matters most,” he asseverated.
On his part, Executive Director of the foundation, Muyiwa Bolariwa, affirmed that its objectives were to reduce unemployment by 50 percent by training women in various crafts and helping to reach out to corporate organizations who can engage the trainees having been certified.
“We are seeking more young girls to take part in the construction training so that when they graduate they can take any job from the over 200 jobs available in the field. We will continue to work with other groups to increase awareness for women in construction,” he maintained.
For Tobias Woltgurten, Team Leader GIZ-SKYE, an International Cooperation for Sustainable Development, International Education Work, young students should take up careers in the construction industry and never allow anybody to discourage them otherwise.
Other Partners reaffirmed that they would continue to employ women in their respective engineering organizations provided such women possess the skills, capacity and energy to do the jobs, hence; the assertion, “What a man can do, a woman can do better,”
On her part, Ronke Azeez, Executive Secretary Lagos State Technical and Vocational Eductaion, Board, LASTVEB, noted that the Board will continue to give adequate training to females in the construction skills.
“Construction industry is a major area in Nigeria and even in many countries and less than 10 percent of our women are taking part in the industry.
Vanguard News Nigeria
