The VC, Prof. Olusola Oyewole (Left) addressing the women farmers during the Training-of-Trainers (ToT) Vocational Workshop in Soap Making held recently.
Gender segregation and poor participation of women in the rural areas in the entrepreneurial sector has been identified as a major cause of the prevailing poverty and hunger in Africa.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Bandele Oyewole made this observation while delivering his Address at the Training-of-Trainers (ToT) Vocational Workshop in Soap Making for women farmers from FUNAAB’s Extension Villages.
Professor Olusola lamented the alarming rise in poverty level in the Sub-Saharan Africa, stressing that the barriers of self-empowerment and self-reliance being faced by women, especially by rural women, are critical to poverty alleviation.
According to him, “When a woman is financially independent and has the capacity to meaningfully contribute to the fulfillment of her family’s financial needs, everyone will be happy and the family’s stability will be guaranteed”.
The Vice-Chancellor described as alarming, the World Bank’s records of 1980, which indicated that one out of every ten poor people lived in the Sub-Saharan Africa, but had at 2000, declined to one out of every three poor people.
Professor Oyewole expressed the worry that the projections could be tending towards a situation of the region being one out of every two poor people, with the highest number of people living on less than a dollar a day and having the highest level of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world.
To avert the imminent disaster, Professor Oyewole pointed out that the University, through its Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Centre (AMREC) had been promoting Vocational Skills Development as one of the key intervention strategies in the fight against poverty.
The Vice-Chancellor further stated that the ToT Workshop on Soap-Making also addressed two Millennium Development Goals of ‘Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger’ and ‘Promotion of Gender Equity and Empowerment of Women’.
Earlier, the Director of AMREC, Professor (Mrs.) Carolyn Afolami, said AMREC is charged with the responsibility of implementing the extension mandate of the University; covering the Southwest part of Nigeria, viz: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States.
She disclosed that the “Training aims at equipping representatives of women farmers from our extension villages across the State with knowledge and skills in soap production, for enhancement of income-generation of the beneficiaries”.
The communities represented at the workshop included Iwoye-ketu, Boodo, Ogijan, Kofesu, Ojoo and Agbade. Others were: Ogboja, Odogbolu, Isaga, Ode-lemo, Itesi-Ajegunle, Ijemo-Fadipe and Egbeda.