NANTS Executive Delegation to the Minister of Women Affairs - The National Association of Nigerian Traders NANTS

On Tuesday 16th of April 2024, the NANTS National Executives led by the Asociation’s President Dr Ken Ukaoha esq paid a courtesy visit to the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs Hon. Uju Kennedy Ohanenye at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs Abuja. The purpose of the meeting were to 1. Congratulate the Minister on her appointment 2. Intimate the Minister on the activities of NANTS specifically in regards to trade and agricultural development. 3 Seek possible areas of partnership with the Ministry.

During the introductory speech by the NANTS President, he congratulated the Minister saying she is the right person for the job giving her antecedents, the President of Nigeria made the right choice. He went ahead to appreciate her transformative activities with regards to women empowerment which she carries out beyond the barriers of religion and tribe. The impact made so far is highly commendable hence the need to scale it through partnerships with the private sector.

He went further to thank the Minister for honoring his invitation during the commissioning ceremony of the first modern integrated abattoir in FCT Abuja established by NANTS with support from ECOWAS and Swiss Development Commission. The abattoir which is established to address hygiene issues within the meat value chain and to serve as a model which can be replicated and adopted to remodel the conventional practices at the public abattoir as well as showcase business practices that assures high returns on investment attractive enough for private sector investment.

With focus on job creation for youths in fodder production, increase milk production and disposable income among indigenous cattle farmers through adoption of practices that enhance animal nutrition and reduce milk spoilage and waste through proper hygienic handling practices, NANTS is currently setting up an Integrated Milk Factory which will showcase best practices in animal nutrition, milk production and marketing within the value chain. This project targets series of capacity building engagements for 1500 direct beneficiaries comprising women involved in processing and marketing of milk as well as youths. NANTS has over the years implemented interventions that focus on women empowerment in trade and agriculture and is willing to partner with the Ministry in this regard to strengthen efforts and gains from previous empowerment programs.

In response the honourable Minister expressed her gratitude for the visit considering it as very timely. She explained the activities of the Ministry in terms of women empowerment which include distribution of rice processing machines to women in major grain production areas in the North, cassava and garri processing machines in the South and fish processing machines in the South East.

To ensure sustainability of these enterprises, she said the traditional leaders were involved to periodically carryout oversight functions. She identified some focal areas which she will like the Ministry to partner with NANTS. These areas include: 1) Profiling and selection of women beneficiaries for Micro credit support at not more than 5% interest rate. 2) Profiling of poorest markets in the six geopolitical zones for financial assistance. 3) Identification and profiling of 300 youths for training and provided with laptops for data capturing of women (5 million targeted for on-boarding on the Nigerian women e-market platform). 4) Facilitate engagement of stakeholders in the transportation sector to dialogue on best ways of handling transportation logistics to reduce the transaction cost on small scale businesses.

After the meeting, the NANTS President treated all NANTS members to a sumptuous meal (lunch) in a fancy restaurant where he advised members to: i) Take the outcomes of the meeting with the Minister very seriously by giving it the best attention needed. ii) Continue to work in harmony (void of sabotage) for the common good of the Association. iii) The need to set up a committee that will review the partnership’s terms of reference (ToR) for better understanding of roles and the appointment of committee members which will be based on the prerogative of the President. iv) Need for NANTS State leadership to intensify effort in sensitization and grassroots mobilization of members for the easy profiling and on-boarding. v) To avoid bias in the selection of the 300 youths who will be trained for profiling and data capturing.

It was indeed a fruitful meeting that promises positive outcomes and the next steps will be to constitute a working committee that will review the conditions for partnership and follow through with the partnership process.