By Jide Olaniran

The  United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Gender equality is a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful and sustainable world.

A few months ago, the Lagos State Government unveiled its plan to embark on a financial inclusion and empowerment programme for indigent women in hard-to-reach communities as an integral part of the SDGs. At the unveiling, the Special Adviser to the Governor on SDG, Dr. Oreoluwa Finnih-Awokoya said that the programme would inculcate financial literacy as a form of promoting human capital development through advocacy for women. According to her, the first phase of the project, put together by the Office of SDGs. in partnership with some development partners which include Africa Human Capital Development (HCD) Africa, Opay and Cowrywise, will target 100 women per community in 14 different local government areas in the state.

She explined that the mission is a critical success factor of the SDGs ,noting that ‘through this project ,we can accomplish an equitable Lagos where every woman thrives irrespective of her circumstances. If we are to achieve lasting success with our mandate , we must mandatorily carry everyone along’.

This advocacy project forms a significant aspect of the Lighthouse project and the overall mandate of the Office of the SDGs to ameliorate the living standards of these hard-to-reach areas through inclusiveness for women. Out of the 20Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state, about 14 have significant number of hard-to-reach communities and make up 10% of the state population. Tthrough the unrelenting support of UNICEF, the SDG office was able to conduct a need-based assessment and established the unique challenge of financial invisibility in these communities.

Consequently, an advocacy to illuminate the issue of financial exclusion in the focused communities and promote awareness of its extent became inevitable in furtherance of  Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s THEMES + agenda. Matching action with words, the empowerment train touched down in Epe, Ojodu and three other LGAs.

Over 500 community women benefited from the  essential financial literacy, entrepreneurship training, and access to vital financial services for them to be self-independent. Over 100 women from each community were positively impacted in five communities as the beneficiaries were empowered during the advocacy programmes. The women were drawn from Odomola in Epe LGA; Amukoko in Ajeromi-Ifelodun LGA; Ojojo in Kosofe LGA; Oke Ira, in Ojodu in Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA); and Ijora Badia in Apapa Iganmu LCDA.

The advocacy programme, tagged “Promoting Human Capital Development through Advocacy for Women’s Financial Inclusion in the Hard-to-reach Communities”, was organised by the Office of SDGs in collaboration with HCD Africa, Pay Business (Opay), Cowrywise, Lagos State Resident Registration Agency (LASSRA), and National Identity Management Commission.

During the advocacy programme, Finnih-Awokoya restated the state government’s commitment to women’s empowerment and financial inclusion in hard-to-reach communities for them to be independent and self-reliant. She advised women to ensure that they are engaged in one business or the other, no matter how small, to be financially empowered, with a call on them to imbibe saving culture.

Represented by her Technical Assistant, Dr. Oluwunmi Akinlade, the Special Adviser said that the advocacy programme in partnership with HCD Africa was to increase advocacy for women’s financial inclusion in hard-to-reach communities as well as increase awareness of data’s role in delivering better HCD outcomes.

She said: ‘It is very important to empower women with necessary skills to improve their businesses and to save. Our advice to women is to make sure that they save for the future. We want women to be financially independent. We don’t want them to depend solely on any man.

‘Women should have financial freedom. As a woman, we don’t want to depend solely on other people, especially if we have children. We want to take care of our children and make sure that we have enough money to do whatever we want’.

During the advocacy programme in Ojodu, the Chairman of Ojodu LCDA, Hon. Segun Odunmbaku expressed his readiness to partner with the Office of the SDGs, HCD Africa, and financial institutions to empower women in his community. He said the advocacy programme, which is in tandem with the programme of the LCDA, is commendable. He therefore promised partnership with the state government and the partners to make the programme reach more women.

While stressing the need for sustainability of the programme, Odunmbaku encouraged the team to reach out to more women, saying he is ready for partnership and sharing of ideas on how to empower more women in the community. ‘Your programme is in tandem with the programme of our local council. We will partner with the Office of the SDGs and other partners to make it more robust to reach more women, especially single mothers and widows’, he said.

Representatives of LASSRA, NIMC, Cowrywise and Opay, among others, educated women in the five communities on the importance of data for development and urged them to ensure they are captured for the exercise.

Some of the beneficiaries, especially those who were captured for National Identification Number and LASSRA, as well as those who opened bank accounts with some financial institutions on the ground, commended the state government, Office of the SDGs, HCD Africa, and other partners for coming to their communities for the advocacy programme, which they noted has changed their orientation on financial inclusion and the importance of data.

Mrs. Hafsat Adedoja Kazeem, Tunwashe Olubukola, Mutiat Balogun, and Fatimo Titilayo Alasan, among others, who spoke during the events held in the five communities, expressed satisfaction about the advocacy programme, saying that they learnt a lot of things on how to manage, invest, and spend their money. They also commended the organisers for providing an avenue for them to open accounts with some financial institutions and doing NIN and LASSRA registrations.