Scholar, researcher, advocate more funding for self-employed
A professor of psychiatry and immediate past provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI), Olayinka Omigbodun, has called on the government to take advantage of the huge percentage of self employed women and informal sector to improve the economy.
The scholar, who said by empowering women who statistics revealed are about 85 percent self employed, government will be doing so much in reviving the economy.
She spoke while fielding questions from reports at the opening of a six week training of about 100 self employed young women who are selected from different parts of Ibadan, Oyo State.
The project is called “Understanding the Gendered Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Young Self-Employed Nigeria Women and Co-Producing Solutions that Foster Better Systems and Well-being” which was branded as: “Advancing Resiliency in Self-Employed young women in Nigeria (Arise and Win).
Omigbodun who is the principal investigator for this Arise and Win project said the effort is a pilot testing and a co-produced comprehensive intervention that was developed with the policymakers, self-employed young women, researchers, based on the research evidence.
She said: “Eighty six (86) percent of women in employment in Nigeria are self employed and many of them lack support that they need to thrive in business and life and have optimal wellbeing.
“They need acceptable, accessible, co-produced interventions which is the gap that Arise and Win project is trying to fill. Almost 80 percent of men are also in the self-employed sector. So that’s the sector that our policymakers and government should actually focus on.
“If we are saying most of the working age are in self-employment, the government must be sensitive, must be aware, and understands the importance of investing. That is the place, one of the places they will really invest in, to grow our economy.
“Even those in wages are few. But these are the people, this is the army that’s going to help boost Nigerian economy. So that’s what we’re doing.”
Also speaking, the lead postdoctoral fellow on the Arise and Win project, Dr Iyeyinka Kusi-Mensah said the focus of the training was due to studies which showed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, women suffered much more than men, as they were stuck at home because they had children to look after.
She said the training consist of two major parts about what self-employed women needs to know, saying, “We have put together a package which is going to consist of two major aspects. One aspect is capacity building on what sort of things do self-employed women need to know. So we are going to be teaching them things about health and well-being, physical health, mental health.
“We are going to be teaching them things on economic, how to financial management. We are going to be teaching them about their rights, they need to know what are their rights, what is available for them if they are in trouble. We are going to be teaching them if they need soft loans, how do they take it, everything pertaining to managing a business.
“We are going to teach them about digital space, if this is the age of artificial intelligence, how do I move my business online? Many of them can use their AI to do designs, well AI is not on the syllabus here, but I’m just saying that if you are a self-employed young woman or man or if you are in employment and you don’t have digital skills, the world will leave you behind.”
