Eromosele Abiodun
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman has stated that gender equality is a global phenomenon, stressing that Nigeria is forging ahead to bridge inequality gap with more favourable policies to spur women participation in the maritime sector.
The NPA boss who stated this while speaking at a forum in Lagos, noted that every Nigerian must be given a chance to contribute to the drive by the federal government to grow the economy.
Bala-Usman, who was represented by the Director, Marine and Operations, Sekonte Davies, said: “We must give our citizens irrespective of the gender, their deserved place in growing the national economy.”
She called for more encouragement for girls to study related courses that would enable them to take career in the maritime sector.
Usman, enjoined other agencies to create a working condition that would encourage women (during and after childbirth), adding that the NPA has increased the maternity leave from 12 weeks to 16 weeks.
Meanwhile, in furtherance to its strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes the management of the NPA has delivered a newly built infrastructure to archive vital documents to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
Speaking at the NIS Ikoyi passport office in Lagos, Bala-Usman, who was represented by the General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communication, Adams Jatto reiterated the fact that the authority takes pride in adding value to the society through the implementation of strategic and deliberate CSR intervention projects at locations that support our cooperate goals.
She added that the building was delivered to the service, with the belief that it would be put to proper use for documentation, records, and information storage that are central to our nation’s security and history.
She assured that the organisation would try to maintain existing good relations with the service in line with international best practice, adding that NPA would have built a bigger facility but were constrained by the lack of enough space at the Immigration office.
Earlier in his address, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede expressed profound appreciation for the good gesture, promised to work more closely with the management of the NPA at the Ports and assured that no delay in cargo clearance would be traced to the Immigration especially as a result of request for bribe.
Babandede also expressed the service commitment to the success of the federal government ease of doing business and transparency in all their activities.
