By Fortune Eromosele, Abuja

Executive Director of the Women in Management, Business and Public Service, WIMBIZ, Ms. Hansatu Adegbite, has said the private sector cannot contribute effectively to the economy without having the right governance.

She stated this at the United Nations Women roundtable dialogue with Nigerian female gubernatorial candidates in collaboration with WIMBIZ in Abuja.

According to her, having the right leaders would prove effective in nation-building saying that a nation’s economy blossoming, stood on the feet of the small and large-scale businesses of Nigeria.

She said, “The private sector cannot effectively contribute to nation-building without ensuring we have the right people in governance because anything that happens in the political or public sector space continues to affect us as private sector.

“The economy is very critical to the private sector and if we have leaders that are not enhancing the economy, we all know what we are suffering and we would continue to suffer. We know that both the SMEs and a lot of our large scale business are the backbone of any economy in any nation.”

Explaining the roles WIMBIZ was playing and would contribute, Adegbite said, “One of the reasons WIMBIZ is also here is because we actually want to understand what the women-in-politics, especially those of them that are running for gubernatorial positions, we want to understand what their pain-points are. 

“We want to know the areas we can identify that we can begin to influence some of our members to find ways to support or even the private sector because sometimes contributions can be not just in cash but mainly in kind.”

On her part, the UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong, said the participation of women and girls in the decision-making of a nation was needed to foster national development.

She said, “Why must women sit at the table, why must we do everything in our power to ensure that women sit at the table? Everyone suffers from the under-representation of women and their organizations. Participation of women and girls in decision-making is needed for policies and budgets to effectively meet everyone’s needs and achieve crisis prevention, response, and recovery.

“When more women participate in public life and policy making, greater emphasis and resource allocations, point to social policies, environmental priorities and issues like health, education, child care, ending violence against women and girls and overall quality of life concerns.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, urged women in politics to seek top management positions in their political parties.

Tallen, who was represented by Nasiru Baba Saleh, a director in the ministry, also urged political parties to develop a policy that will enhance gender equity and mainstreaming.