Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo has advised members of the Association of Nigeria Women Business Network to take advantage of the various business intervention programmes of the Federal Government to grow their businesses.
The intervention programmes, according to the Minister, included the SMEs Survival Fund and N50 billion Export Expansion Facility amongst others.
Addressing a delegation of the association on Thursday in his office, the Minister said the ministry also have various gender-based programmes such as Gender Initiative for Commodity and Export under the Commodity and Export Department in the ministry and Gender Initiative in the Department of Trade, which can assist them to grow their businesses.
He advised them to come up with their demands as to where the ministry can assist them to enable them take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) for the good of the association.
While responding , the Coordinator of the association, Mrs Modupe Oyekunle had presented the Minister with a list of challenges affecting the businesses of their members, pointing out that the government must take conscious efforts at addressing the challenges of insecurity in the country.
She noted that some members of the association lost hundreds of millions to the violence that trailed the #Endsars protest in Lagos last year.
Besides, some of their members who are farmers could not access their farmland due to the activities of kidnappers and bandits who daily invaded farms and destroy their crops.
