Women International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria, has appealed to the Federal Government for assistance in the area of training of its members abroad.
The president of the association, Mrs Jean Chiazor- Anishere, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos. She said that the gesture would enable the association to meet up its professional obligations to the Nigerian maritime industry.
Women International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria, has appealed to the Federal Government for assistance in the area of training of its members abroad.
The president of the association, Mrs Jean Chiazor- Anishere, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos. She said that the gesture would enable the association to meet up its professional obligations to the Nigerian maritime industry.
Chiazor-Anishere recalled that the association had in the past produced chief executives of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) as well as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
She said that the association could produce more chief executives if government could assist in training more women to specialise in several areas of maritime industry.
The association's president described training as very important, adding that “if you train a woman you have trained a nation’’.
She said that the association would train its members on capacity building to sustain the maritime industry.
She stated that:“We need more training; like four members of WISTA Nigeria being sponsored by the Federal Government to go to the World Maritime University for example and have a course for a month or three months done because when the girl’s profile is improved in that regard then we will indeed have women who are top in the industry, who can take charge, be ES of Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the first female and the only one we’ve had so far to be the alter ego of NIMASA – our own past President, Mrs Mfon Ekong Usoro was the first woman to be the CEO of NIMASA, we want women to also be head of parastatals.
“Why won’t we a have a woman to be the MD of Nigerian Ports Authority? why can’t we have a woman to be the ES of Nigerian Shippers’ Council? We will only have such women if we are given the training opportunity abroad in terms of training.”
She said that the association had been donating fishing boats and nets to support rural women in fishing communities such as Epe in Lagos State, and Oron in Akwa Ibom State, since its establishment in 1994.“We need more money to be able to spread the fishing boats to more states. We don’t want to stop at one state per year or two states.
“In my case we are looking at two states. My duration is two years. If we can get four boats we can give a boat each to four different states in one particular year, so that we can actually look out for more areas where we can support the women.
“But for us who are real members of WISTA Nigeria, we need the Federal Government to support us in training.
“We don’t want to be local champions because the training that we have been having are trainings right in Nigeria among us here.
“Aside from when we have international conferences being organised by WISTA International, we have to go abroad. The government does assist by giving us by giving us sponsorships.’’
Chiazor-Anishere said that WISTA Nigeria was not planning to increase the number of its chapters but to strengthen the existing six.
The association’s six chapters which have a total of 3,000 members, are located in Abuja, Lagos, Aba, Warri, Uyo and Port-Harcourt.
Discussion about this post