Borno State Government is to partner the Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN) in the training and empowerment of women and youths.
The collaboration of APWEN and state government; will also develop the infrastructural facilities destroyed in the 12-year insurgency in the state.
Announcing the partnership at an investiture of Engr. Elizabeth Jumoke at the weekend in Victoria Island, Lagos, Governor Babagana Zulum, represented by Commissioner of Inter-Governmental Affairs, Kabir Wanori disclosed that; “We’re to train young women for empowerment and infrastructural development.”
He noted that as the investiture is apt, the engineering profession is one of the most challenging sectors across the globe.
“The assertion of challenge brought to the fore; the importance of the engineering profession in a developmental perspective,” stating that most of the infrastructural facilities that are critical to the development process of Borno; have been destroyed by terrorists.
He said there is the need to develop the state with infrastructures along with the resettlement drives to return 1.7 million IDPs to communities.
He noted that the practice of the engineering profession must, therefore, catch up with the changing technology with climate change.
Wanori added that the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) have since aligned to the globally accepted technological advancement, economic development and growth.
While expressing delight over female engineers, he said: “I’m happy to see girl-child or women excelling in their chosen profession.”
He, therefore, called on parents and the Federal Government to support women education, as they are the bedrocks of any society.
He further disclosed that the state government has a high premium on girl-child education, as it has sponsored many girls to study professional courses in Sudan, Greece and India.
He added that these include the sponsorships of dozens of science-based teachers for training and retraining in India.
“This is to jumpstart science courses in the post-primary schools in Borno state,” he said; stating that there were massive recruitment of science teachers with the overhaul of the education sector.
He therefore commended the efforts and support of APWEN for women professionals in various sectors of the economy in Nigeria.
By Mohammed Farouk
