The Lagos State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Bolaji Dada, has revealed that 65,000 women have benefitted from empowerment programmes in the state.

The commissioner disclosed this at the 21st WIMBIZ Annual Conference, themed ‘Firing Forward: The Future in Focus’, were she was a panellist.

Dada said before she came into office, most of the empowerment programmes ran once a year, but she had successfully set them to run four times a year.

She said, “Before I came into office, most of the empowerment programmes in the state ran just once a year, I knew that I had to change that, because how many people can benefit from a once-a-year programme?

“The Micro-Enterprise Support Scheme for example now runs four times a year and has successfully empowered 8,885 women so far.

“We also noticed that most of our women do not pay attention to their bodies, so we decided to start free medical checks for women in the state and as a result, 2,750 women have benefitted so far.

“In total, over 65,000 women have benefitted from our collective empowerment programmes in the state.”

Dada spoke alongside four other women in the fourth plenary session; President, NECA Network of Entrepreneurial Women, Funmilayo Arowoogun; UN Women’s representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong; Meridian Maskara and Executive Secretary of MTN Nigeria Foundation, Oludayo Sanya, who moderated the session.