Women Empowerment: Implement N5bn Policy, Uba Sani Urged

The Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has been urged to ensure the full implementation of the state’s Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Policy.

The Managing Director of OhrAgric, Oguike Wisdom Emeka, called for the allocation and release of the proposed N5 billion intervention fund in the 2027 budget.

The state government had in November 2024 launched the policy as a strategic plan to add more women and girls to its financial inclusion and empowerment drive.
Emeka said the policy, designed to improve the economic status of women across the state, had yet to achieve its intended objectives due to the absence of a functional implementation framework, inter-ministerial coordination and dedicated budgetary allocation.

He expressed concern that vulnerable women, particularly persons with disabilities and those facing economic exclusion, risked being left behind despite the policy’s commitment to improving their livelihoods and economic relevance.

The OhrAgric boss spoke yesterday at a capacity-strengthening engagement for media professionals and OhrAgric staff towards advocating specific budgetary allocation for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Kaduna State, organised in partnership with Paced Initiative and Africa Media Development Foundation.

According to him, engagements with relevant government institutions revealed that no implementation committee had been inaugurated to coordinate the execution of the policy.

“Trying to look into the WEE Policy to find out how far it has gone, we realised that nothing has been done about it.

“As we stated earlier, there has been no committee inaugurated for the implementation of the WEE Policy,” he said.

Emeka, however, disclosed that the ongoing 2027 budget planning process offered an opportunity to address the implementation gap, following engagements with the state government and relevant ministries.

He said the OhrAgric advocacy team was informed that efforts to capture the policy in the budget had encountered challenges, as government officials insisted that policy provisions must be translated into specific programmes and activities before receiving budgetary allocations.

“The Director of Planning told us that a policy statement cannot just appear in the budget; it must be tied to programmes,” he said.

He noted that the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development had begun engaging institutions such as the Kaduna State Enterprise Development Agency (KADEDA) and the Ministry of Business, Trade and Innovation to develop programmes that would support the policy’s implementation.

Emeka, however, lamented the lack of synergy among ministries responsible for the policy’s key pillars, including agriculture, entrepreneurship and economic development, saying the absence of an effective coordination mechanism could undermine its execution.

He explained that the Ministry of Women Affairs, as the coordinating ministry, needed to ensure that resources allocated to the policy were properly accessed and distributed among the implementing ministries.

The OhrAgric managing director said the advocacy was aimed at ensuring that the governor’s commitment of N5 billion to women’s economic empowerment was reflected in the 2027 budget and backed by concrete implementation measures.

“Our goal at the end of the day is to see that by the 2027 budget, this comes up as a budget, especially with the commitment that the governor has made of N5 billion.

“Let the money be given and reflected in the budget towards the full implementation of the WEE Policy,” he said.

Emeka added that effective implementation of the policy would help address socio-cultural barriers confronting women, including financial exclusion, limited access to economic opportunities and factors contributing to child marriage.

He stressed that women’s economic empowerment should go beyond policy declarations to include measurable interventions that improve household incomes, expand access to productive resources, and strengthen women’s participation in the state’s economy.

He, however, called on the Kaduna State Government to demonstrate its commitment to gender inclusion by providing dedicated funding, establishing an implementation committee and ensuring effective collaboration among relevant ministries and agencies.