As the global community marks International Women’s Day, Cakasa Engineering Company and Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation have emphasised the need for gender equality and women empowerment.
They made the call at an event to mark the 2023 International Women’s Day (IWD) on Wednesday at Mushin, a suburb of Lagos.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of CAKASA Nigeria Company Ltd, Mr Barnabas Olise, said that IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign topic was created by its initiators to start a global conversation on why equal opportunities were not enough.
Represented by Mrs. Folake Akangbe, Manager, Personnel Service, Olise said that true inclusion and belonging required equitable action since everyone had distinctiveness.
The chief executive officer said that flowing from the general theme for 2023, the United Nations had further made the theme for the year: “DigitALL Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”.
“In both our business operations and as an organisation, Cakasa Nigeria Company Ltd. continues to place a high priority on gender equality and empowerment.
“As part of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, led by Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation (CEF), our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm, we have encouraged women’s economic empowerment in tandem with girls’ educational advancement as a strategy to accelerate women’s inclusivity,” Olise said.
He said that Cakasa was currently sponsoring the education of 10 young girls up to the university level in Education District 1 Alimosho Local Government Area in Lagos State as a means of promoting gender equity.
According to him, Women’s opportunities to pursue careers in fields related to Science, Technology. Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are reduced if they cannot access the Internet and do not feel secure doing so.
On her part, the Executive Director of Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation, Mrs. Helen Egbe, urged women in Mushin Community to be change makers.
“We need women who would come and change the world. The men have done it for so long. It’s time we need women to come up and let’s see what women can do,’’ Egbe said.
She supported her position by lending some quotes from renowned women across the globe.
The executive director said that the foundation decided to partner with five schools within the Mushin area to celebrate women because of its vision to transform society and give hope to the less privileged.
Egbe said that as part of the foundation’s CSR, it decided to impact the women, and mothers of the children of New City Primary School, Papa Ajao, Oduduwa, and New Estate Primary School because they were the ones who really were at home most of the time with the children.
Also speaking, Education Secretary, Mushin Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Princess Olu Akinlude, expressed appreciation to Mushin women for their resilience.
She said that the “I can do it” spirit of women was second to none, saying that they had also trained their children in like manner.
In her keynote address, Olusola called on women to leverage technology to better their lives.
Agboola said that with the aid of technology, ordinary things could be transformed with better value addition.
According to her, there is a world of possibilities for women to thrive in the world.
She urged women to make good use of their smartphones to improve upon what they do.
The event was graced by women within the Mushin locality, staff of the Foundation and Cakasa Nigeria Company, teachers from selected schools and principal staff of the LGEA.