By Temitope Musowo
Female education has been described as a veritable means of achieving rapid national development in any country of the world.
Wife of Ondo State Governor, Her Excellency, Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu
said this while speaking at the opening ceremony of BeMore Summer Bootcamp for Girls Naija, 2018, put together by BeMore Empowered Foundation in conjunction with the Office of the First Lady, of Ondo State where over 400 girls are to be trained in Information Communication & Technology (ICT), Solar Technology and other life enhancing skills.
Tracing the history of two nations- Nigeria and United Arab Emirate (UAE) way back to the 1970, Mrs. Akeredolu pointed out that 40 years down the line, UAE has made tremendous progress to become a high income country while Nigeria still remains a middle income country.
According to Mrs. Akeredolu, what made the difference is female education as UAE made significant investments in Girl-Child education with more than 90% of their women educated.
"On the contrary, Nigeria female illiteracy population remains high till date. More than half of our women are still without a formal education. These facts made me to conclude that; one more educated woman leads to much more national income.
“Every single day; 102 women die as a result of childbirth while 2,123 children's dream of celebrating their 5th birthday is crushed by death. These challenges are largely a result of low literacy level", she added.
Mrs. Akeredolu who expressed joy at being a part of the active movement working to help the nation achieve its sustainable development goal, restated her commitment to empowering the women folk while also charging the beneficiaries to strive to be a part of the solutions bedeviling the country.
On the successes recorded after the completion of last year's training, Mrs. Akeredolu acknowledged the feats attained by Tomisin Tomoju, a student of Fiwasaye who won the Africa Code Week Scratch Competition for Ondo State; young Oluwafunmilola Akeremale, a JSS1 student who has been mentored to become the youngest breast cancer advocate in the state; Tolu Ehimosan who built a state of the art solar oven among others who are blazing the trail urging the new entrants to do their best as their journey to greatness begins.
Mrs. Akeredolu also used the opportunity to laud the efforts of the Anambra Golden Girls who clinched the gold medal at a world technovation challenge while also thanking all those who invested both money and time to ensure the success of the 2nd edition of the Summer Bootcamp.
BeMore Ambassador, Ehimosan Tolu in her goodwill message acknowledged the roles women have played in the past towards impacting humanity.
Ms. Ehimosan who observed that though the society has not been fair in giving the girl child ample opportunity to excel however extolled Mrs. Akeredolu for creating such an opportunity through her initiative to train young girls.
In his own remark, the Chairman, OSOPADEC, Hon. Olugbenga Edema thanked the First Lady for providing the rare opportunity to train the young girls.
Hon. Edema who also lauded Mrs. Akeredolu for redefining urbanization by taking the training to the grassroots, expressed readiness to continue to support such laudable projects.
Earlier in his address, the chairman of the occasion, Dr. Moji Atalabi enjoined the girls to take advantage of the training saying it is a privilege they must explore to the fullest.
Akintan Ayomide and Arifayo Oluwanifemi, two of the beneficiaries in their remark thanked Mrs. Akeredolu for giving them the privilege to partake in the programme.
It is expected that the 14 day training programme will feature training in information Communication Technology ICT, Solar Technology and Life Changing skills for the 400 school girls drawn from across the 18 local government areas of the state and beyond at the Public Service Training Institute, Ilara-Mokin.
