By Okon Okon
Abuja – Dr Lami Muhammad, President, Association of professional women builders of Nigeria (APWBN), says the organisation’s aim is to produce quality female artisans that will enhance Nigeria’s construction industry.
Muhammad, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Abuja, said APWBN was working towards increasing female artisans to compete favourably with their male counterparts in the country.
NAN reports that APWBN had in 2019 trained more than 500 female artisans, who graduated in various fields across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.
According to Muhammad, the female artisan agenda has been growing steadily since APWBN began engaging young female artisans in the areas of electricity, masonry, painting, plumbing, welding and fabrication, among others.
“We are working towards having quality female artisans to outnumber their male counterparts in the Nigerian Building Construction Industry; as the association prepares to graduate yet another set of artisans later in the year.
“Our focus is to distract youths, young girls in particular, from indulging in negative acts such as drug and alcohol abuse, and other vices capable of destroying their future.
“You know when you educate a woman, you educate a nation because we are the first natural teachers, as mothers, aunties or sisters in the home front, in every family,’’ she said.
According to Muhammad, if teens are allowed to begin experimenting with drugs because of peer influence, they are setting themselves up for potentially life-threatening habits, hence the need to engage them in meaningful skills acquisition programmes.
The APWBN`s president said women had been endowed with natural wisdom to play their roles in achievement of quality construction, which was definitely a function of natural skills in man.
She also noted that the initiative would go a long way in reducing the unemployment rate among youths in the country.
Muhammad added that the Nigerian construction industry would also benefit immensely as the importation of foreign artisans into the country would be minimised.
(NAN)
