Eniola Dada is the national coordinator of the Nigeria Network of Women Exporters of Services (NNWES). She spoke to Daily Sun after a recent conference about the vision and mission of the organisation. It was a very interesting encounter as she goes down memory lane recalling memorable experiences that spanned over 18 years.

The insurance consultant who was appointed in July 2006 to head the organisation also talks about her experiences with Non Governmental Organisations across the country." The International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva launched the NNWES early in 2006. Presently, women are on the global agenda.

The Millennium Development Goals number three has to do with women and empowerment in every sphere. I believe these are some of the things that must have informed the decision for the ITC to come to Nigeria in particular. I guess because of our population and leadership status in the continent they thought Nigeria would be a good place to situate the network."

This is actually the first of its kind, says Dada who also tells you that some other African countries are trying to replicate it. "The idea is to encourage women to export their services. Women have been exporting their services for sometime but it is cumbersome to deal with certain things like funding. The area of service is new and if you look at the trends in the global trade, services is beginning to take up a huge percentage of global change.

These things informed the commencement of the network".
Dada continues: "Since it is more capital intensive, they can do it in such a way that they can seat here in Nigeria and still earn foreign exchange by consulting for international organizations. You do not have to cross the borders of the country to do it. The issue of economic empowerment for women is a global issue."

Poverty, Dada laments wears the face of a woman. "So, it is a way to ensure that women get money into their hands. Their husbands, children and families also gain from it".
Membership? " We have two categories of members for now. First, we have those who already own their own businesses and are waiting to export their services. And then we have women who are working in service organizations and are thinking of owning their own business in the next one or two years. So we have people in the area of Telecomm, oil and gas, financial services and lawyers. These are those who have done well in Nigeria and are looking for how to expand their coast".

Some achievements have been recorded and one of this was the trip to Ghana as part of the bridge across border project. "Members of the network went for the programme initiated by the ITC and we met our counterparts in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. I have also attended the Services Net Export meeting in Geneva and France. There, we learnt of those who are receiving technical assistance from the financial trade center in Africa, Asia, Latin and Southern America. They came together to chart a way forward for the organization."

Dada was also invited to speak at the African Business Leaders Forum in Ghana. "So, I think the achievement is a continuous thing. I think the whole idea is good as long as you put everything on the table and allow people to talk. Then, definitely, there would be progress. We have some good suggestions from our meetings that we are going to look at."

Lagos is actually a zone for the southwest and it is the headquarters of the organisation. " Lagos needs to be consolidated first because this is the commercial capital of West Africa. The commissioning of the organisation was done simultaneously but the Lagos zone is strategic. It is said that 60 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP is from Lagos. Then we have the Abuja zone where we reach out to states in that area."
She continues: "We know Abuja is the administrative capital but we aim to capture those women in the area of services so we have three chapters now and we are lookaing at other geo-political zones".

Talk about future plans and you awaken something in her. "The expectations are enormous. We are already getting invitations from other African countries like South Africa, Senegal, Ghana and even Pakistan. We have a regional programme coming up in the last quarter of next year. We will be getting women who are involved in trade to Abuja for about two or three days, then we would look at how we can make things better".

Interestingly, the organisation reaches out to other members of the society apart from women. " I just have this passion to help. We reach out to the motherless baby home and the less-privileged to see how we could help them. We talk to women in the market places about sanitation, nutrition and other issues. We also reach the children in public schools. The last programme we had was sponsored by Nestle and it was fantastic with about 300 teachers from all over Lagos."

Apart from this, Dada is involved in another initiative for women in the Niger Delta. "We are looking at what we can do for them. I conceived it and I am trying to sell it to other organizations to see if they can partner with us. I am also involved in an initiative that has to do with tourism in Nigeria and we want to see how we can put Nigeria in the tourism map."