The President of Women in Maritime Africa (WIMAFRICA), Nigerian chapter, Hajia Bola Muse, has said that the 2019 conference of the association would empower more competent women for effective participation in the maritime industry.
Muse disclosed this recently at a briefing in Lagos, ahead of the forthcoming annual conference of the association.
According to her, the conference with the theme: “Empowering Women For Effective Participation In The Maritime Sector” scheduled for this month, aims at improving women participation in the industry.
She urged women from all areas to participate in the conference with expert in the industry who would assist them on how to excel in the industry like their male counterparts.
Muse said that WIMA-Nigerian is a sub chapter of WIMAfrica adopted the maritime strategy 2050 to contribute to the building Africa’s blue economy.
According to her, the association is providing a platform for training, capacity building, corporate and entrepreneurial development of African women in the maritime sector.
She added: “Since inception of WIMA Nigeria in 2017, we have had two dispensations of executives who have been progressively growing the association. WIMAfrica had donated giant ovens to Makoko Women Fishing Community to enable them produce more fish for export and also donated waste bin to Inland Water Ways Authority to support in making our waters clean at all times.
“Between 2017 and 2018, we have formally registered the association and got recognised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the National Assembly and other national bodies. The association had undertaken some empowerment programmes including the donation of fish processing and preservation equipment to women in Makoko fishing community in Lagos.”
The Chairman of Conference Committee of WIMA-Nigeria, urged both women and men who intend to encourage women in businesses to take advantage of the conference to exploit the potential of Nigeria’s maritime industry.