By Tony Edike
ENUGU—NATIONAL President of Nigerian Association of Women Entrepreneurs, NAWE, Mrs. Ada Ozongwu, has lamented the poor attitude of women in the country towards accessing loans and other credit facilities.

Speaking with reporters after the quarterly meeting of NAWE in Enugu, Ozongwu said the organisation  had recently secured a credit facility of N50 million for 50 women to mark Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary but regretted that  only five women had so far applied for it.

She appealed to husbands to encourage their wives to take loans and access other credit facilities available to women to boost their businesses.

The NAWE leader declared that the 35 percent affirmative action can never be achieved if women are not empowered economically because without economic power political power is a mirage.

Ozongwu stressed that women need economic empowerment to compete favourably with men in the political field.

Ozongwu  observed that there were some cultural challenges that hamper women from accessing credit facilities including the attitude of husbands who want to dictate to their wives what credit facilities should be used for and this, she noted,  had forced many women to shun loans.

She further stated  that another challenge that confronts women is that of capacity building and low self esteem; and disclosed that about 25 women are going to Israel for training and when they returned they would be given some funding to start business and put to practice what they learnt in Israel.

Another challenge,  Ozongwu further said, was that many women are not ready to leave their comfort zone as they are not willing to come out of the small scale level of business terrain which the are familiar with.

She insisted that to be an entrepreneur, one has to take risk as well as access credit facilities and appealed to husbands to encourage their wives to access such facilities.

She also lamented that there was no government subvention or backing to NAWE her association and declared that there was no need for state governments in the country to send their people to Songhai Farm in Port Novo Togo where N1.5 million is paid for the training of one person.

Ozongwu stated that 75 percent of small businesses in the country are owned by women and as it is an established fact worldwide,  small businesses drive any economy including the Nigerian economy.

NAWE, Ozongwu pointed out does not give loan or credit facilities but it is a window through which women can be empowered as the association looks at the making of a total woman through the building of capacity and boosting self confidence in women entrepreneurs.