NAWE tasks women on regular exercise 

Association of women under the umbrella of the Nigeria Association of Women Entrepreneurs, (NAWE), has called on women to form the habit of keeping fit through regular exercises to be able to concentrate and achieve more on their entrepreneurial skills.

NAWE is made up of various women entrepreneurs from different sectors of the economy, formed in 1991 by the late wife of the then Head of State, Mariam Babangida. 

The association made the call on Thursday, when it embarked on a walkout session and sensitization as part of activities to mark the International Women’s Month, around Ikeja.

The women commenced the exercise session from the Nigerian Union of Journalists’ secretariat office in Alausa and then walked round the Alausa secretariat.

Speaking during the event, the Lagos Director of NAWE, Mrs Abimbola Oyetunde, said: “As entrepreneurs, we need to stay healthy. We need to burn some calories and stay healthy to be able to concentrate on our businesses. When you walk and dance, you feel a bit relieved and shed a little weight.”

Oyetunde also expressed satisfaction with the resilience of the Nigerian women, noting that even if  they are not there yet, but the level of commitment remains satisfactory.

She said: “The women are not there but they are coming up. Majority of our women have this entrepreneurial spirit, ‘I can do spirit.’ You can see some market women, by 4 and 5 am, they are already out there, trying to put food on the table and to be able to send their children to school. “Some of them are not educated but they want their children to be educated and where they did not get to in life, they want their children to get there.

“Also, in order to be financially independent, they engage in daily contributions here and there.

“When you talk about middle class women, they engage in trade exports, many of them have their own companies where they produce things, these are some of the things that make us stand out,” Oyetunde expressed.

Responding to women’s involvement in the technology space, she explained that women need more training to be able to meet up with their male counterpart.

According to her: “In terms of technology, I will say we are still not there and that’s why training and retraining of women is very important so that we can catch up.

Some of our women are not tech savvy. So it is a hindrance but I believe with the required training, we will get there.”

Also speaking, the Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos Council, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, commended the women, while describing the exercise as a noble one.

Ajayi said: “I want to say that this is a noble idea being put together by the leadership of women journalists in Lagos Council.

“Going by the definition of entrepreneur, it is someone who creates an idea, an idea that is based on economic value.

“The fact that you conceptualize an idea that will create empowerment for people is what entrepreneurship is all about..

“It gives the women a sense of belonging, keeps them busy, not only in journalism alone but in other areas of life and that’s the reason why we are marking today.

“I advise our women folks to imbibe the characteristics of an entrepreneur such as self-motivation, risk taking and adaptation,” Ajayi said.

He also challenged women on more skills such as networking, proper time management, communication, branding, resilience, strategic thinking, brainstorming, research and ability to have their own website in order to attract more people to their businesses, adding that, with all that, that the sky will be their limit.