NCWS wants CAC to create gender desk

The National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) has appealed to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to create a gender desk that will collate information specifically targeted at women’s empowerment.

National president of the council, Mrs Gloria Shoda, made the appeal when members of the council visited the acting Registrar of CAC, Ms Azuka Azinge in Abuja, Wednesday.

She said the desk will assist in raising awareness and educate women on the benefits of formalising their small businesses and all opportunities available in registering such ventures with CAC.

 She said “a gender desk in CAC will help to collate information, specifically targeted at women’s empowerment. Research shows that women outnumber men in business start-ups.

 “However, there are structural obstacles which women face in the society in general, such as gender discrimination in access to opportunities for expansion, skill-acquisition, training and credit facilities.”

Shoda added that the NCWS had the capacity to reach out and educate women, especially in rural areas on what CAC had to offer in terms of business and enterprise environment that would be beneficial to the women.

She stressed the need for unemployed persons, especially women, to venture into business enterprises, as well as register with CAC to enable them to have access to loans, grants and other benefits that would aid their businesses.

 “Therefore, the growth and expansion of the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) sector, as well as the importance of registering a business name cannot be over-emphasised for the womenfolk.

“The benefits are immense, including having access to grants, credit facilities and benefitting from government-backed schemes, exhibitions and training initiatives.”

 The council president commended CAC for reducing the fees for business name registration by 50 per cent for a period of two months and appealed to the commission to extend the grace period to enable women, especially in rural areas, to benefit from it.

 Acting Registrar of CAC, Azinge assured NCWS that the agency would continue to support and encourage the growth of businesses and provide enabling environment for them to thrive.

Azinge also assured that the commission would look into the issue of extending business name registration to enable women, especially in rural areas to benefit from the cost reduction of business names registration.

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