Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, governors and other dignitaries are expected at the inauguration of Platform for African Women in Smart Climate Agriculture (PAWISCA), in Abeokuta, Ogun State next month.
This was made public by the Nigeria representative of the United States-based Foundation, Bishop (Mrs) Bola Oyegbami at a news conference in Lagos heralding the inauguration of the Foundation and its areas of focus across the federation.
According to her, the organisation’s plan aims at arresting the social economic setback through a positive innovation as corporate body for the mobilization of human and material resources for massive employment and engagement for jobs and wealth opportunities for improved quality of livelihood of people.
She identified water technology, agriculture with support to access major markets and export, sanitation and financial services as major projects of the organisation in Nigeria.
Pawisca representative said, “In Pawisca, we have four major projects and Lagos State is a pilot project for all other States to replicate. The first one is water technology. In water technology, we are going to take our water from the Atlantic Ocean. This is a salty water but we are doing something similar to what is in operation in Dubai. In the atlantic ocean now, the process by which you can remove the salt is by desalination. This is what we are going to do. But the plant and machinery we are going to use will come all the way from the United States of America.
“Pawisca is an initiative for women and founded in USA. Our leader is Mrs. Mariam Omalla-Gavin. She will be in Nigeria for inauguration in November 1, 2022. Our Grand Patron is former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, he will declare the inauguration open in the Presidential Library in Abeokuta.”
She was of the view to move Nigerians and the country from the current position to “move into position that we can no longer be called poor nation,” but to go back to former state of one of the “wealthiest nations. We want to make use of our beautiful and intelligent women. We don’t want them to sit at home jobless. Nigerian women are industrious; we want to turn things around and make sure we are sustainable, wealth creators and great thinkers.”
“In our agricultural and agribusiness value chain project plan, we wish to, through our policy programme on quality assurance/quality control value chain and total quality organic agro and allied products, hope to produce goods of high quality in our integrated value-chain agro-industrial part that will meet the international standard under a competitive free market economy.
“With the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement entered into by the Federal Government, we are positioned, we are positioned to hit the African continental market with a market population of 1.3 billion people.
To be able to export products to other countries including United States and Europe, Oyegbami said the organisation was mindful of the requirements and has registered with the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and other relevant stakeholders.
“Mindful of the requirements of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and International Standard Organisation to enable us export our goods to Europe, America and other countries across the globe, we hope to follow up the following standard requirement: Nigeria Industrial Standard (NIS); ISO 9000, key international standard requirement for production; ISO 9001, for cooperative/SME unit; ISO 9002, to give assurance during installation and production and ISO 9003, assurance at fixed inspection.”
Oyegbami, who revealed the Foundation’s project will be replicated across the country with pilot scheme taken off in Lagos State, pleaded with state governments to cooperate with the organisation through approval for land for their projects as they vigorously aim to lift rural women and girl child out of poverty and misery many women are currently battling with.
