Charity Nwakaudu Abuja
Federal Government through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has trained and empowered about 600 women entrepreneurs from the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. 
Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, who addressed the women at a 2-day capacity building for women cooperative groups in Abuja, on Wednesday, challenged the women to leverage on the skills they acquired to liberate themselves and reposition the national economy from oil enslaved to agriculture and entrepreneurship.
Tallen who was represented by the Director of Economic Services, Mohammed Idris, confirmed that entrepreneurship in small, medium and large scale have globally been accepted as the engine of economic growth and equitable development.
She said:  “It is observed that one of the major constraints of women entrepreneurship development is limited access to affordable credit. Therefore, proactive steps are necessary to engender an upsurge in credit facility to women entrepreneurs.
“Banks and other financial institutions should be encouraged to offer their support in order to achieve the necessary growth of entrepreneurship development, growth and sustainability.”
She stated that the government is making effort to ensure adequate provision of infrastructure to enable investors perform optimally to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Ifeoma Anagbogu, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Economic Services Department, Blessing Anunike, in her remarks, said the training would snowball into wealth creation that would further impact on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).