Date: 2020-03-19

The Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, has called on the Federal Government to give a certain percentage of its contracts to women as a way of empowering them.

Saraki said this was not only pertinent but the right thing to do as women did not only pay taxes but were professionals in all fields of endeavour.

The minister disclosed this while playing host to the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, who paid Saraki a courtesy call at Federal Ministry of Transportation headquarters in Abuja.

The transportation minister enjoined Tallen to create a gender desk in the ministry because a lot of women, men inclusive, did not know how to apply for contracts.

"So, there is a need to provide enlightenment in this regard," Saraki stated.

She, however, noted that some line of businesses such as shipping were very expensive to run and enjoined women to pull resources together as a unit in order to overcome this challenge.

Saraki said the Federal Government would continue to support the female gender through policies that would empower them economically and enable them to compete favourably in governance.

Earlier in her address, Tallen informed Saraki that March 2020 had been picked for the celebration of women in Beijing to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Conference but this was cancelled because of the spread of coronavirus.

She, however, stated that women in Nigeria had decided to celebrate within the country from March 26 to March 28, 2020, adding that the transportation minister was invited to join Nigerian women.

Tallen explained the idea about the celebration was to galvanise women, address women and girl-child issues and proffer ways forward.