NCWD Earmarks N130m in 2022 Budget to Eliminate Gender Discrimination, Others

By Kuni Tyessi

The National Council for Women Development (NCWD) would appeal to the National Assembly to approve N1.5 billion from which it plans to appropriate the sum of N1.227 billion for capital expenditure.

On the four-page proposal document for spending in the 2022 fiscal year, the sum of N130 million has been dedicated to fighting all forms of discrimination against the Nigerian woman.

According to the budget document, the council would spend the sum of N40 million to “identify and collate gender gaps across different sectors of the Nigerian economy.”

This would be executed under the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) 2177281, captured on page 1,223 of the 2,168 in the appropriation bill details for 2022.

Accordingly, N130 million would be spent on three areas-legal literacy, traditional practices, and implementation of international conventions.

It read: “ERGP22176666 legal literacy programmes for traditional gatekeepers and other stakeholders for the elimination of gender discriminatory practices in Nigeria, will get N30,000,000, while ERGP 30112591 design and completion of discriminatory laws, policies and practices affecting women and children in Nigeria will gulp N50 million.

“ERGP 30112818 design and implementation of international and national conventions, treaties and protocols on the advancement of women to which Nigeria is a signatory, which is an ongoing project takes N50 million.”

Further inquiry on the document showed the vote to boost the skill set of the Nigerian woman in information communications technology (ICT) with a bias for mechatronics. Twenty million naira was voted for this purpose.

Another N20 million was allotted in the budget for skill acquisition in the same sector for persons living with disability-focused on the blind and the deaf Nigerian woman and children. Both provisions are captured on the budget code ERGP29151130 and ERGP2915114 respectively.