Women’s Day: ACCI Vice President for Women Development advocates innovation for success

The Vice President in charge of Women Development at the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Mrs. Jummai Oluyede, has called for all women to rise above the challenges of doing business and other stumbling blocks faced by them in pursuit of professional careers.

Mrs. Oluyede in her Women’s day message also asked  them to be relentless and not give up, in spite of the fact that women have not received due recognition for the great contributions they have made to the economic development of Nigeria.

She further noted that women must look beyond the challenges of the Nigerian business landscape and summon courage from within as well as from other women to draw the strength needed to create an ecosystem around them, that will foster and grow revolutionary ideas.

According to her, this type of tenacity must be intentional and will require a forward thinking approach, that disrupt “business as usual”, and remove barriers which prevent women from achieving success in their businesses and careers.

Any forward thinking approach, must balance on the 21st century principles, which are skills focused around critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation (the “four Cs”), undergirded by technology. These are very important and critical ingredients necessary for challenging the norm, breaking barriers, building transformational businesses and achieving social transformative gains for Nigeria.

Women cannot afford to lag in these areas and it was for this purpose that the WINDEP platform was established.

For those not familiar with WINDEP; WINDEP is the acronym for Women Industries, Development, Entrepreneurship Program.  The platform was created and launched in December 2018.

WINDEP’s primary role is to explore innovative means of developing women (both entrepreneurs and career women) in all industries in Nigeria, to enable them attain all the indices of being successful and who can contribute to the positive development of Nigeria and Africa.

The WINDEP platform captures the essence of the statement “think equal, build smart and innovate for change”, which is the United Nation’s (UN), theme for International Women’s day 2019.

Mrs. Oluyede reiterated that this type of deliberate focus and direction is what will eventually help us “EMPOWER THE WOMAN AND BUILD THE NATION!”.

Whilst she recognizes that this is an ambitious objective, Mrs. Oluyede believes it is not impossible to achieve.