Lagos employs 70 women truck drivers

The Lagos State Government on Friday said it had just employed 70 women as truck drivers, as part of efforts to empower women in the state.

The Deputy Gov., Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, announced this at a news conference in Ikeja organised to mark Gov. Babatunde Fashola`s sixth year in office.

She said that the women had been trained on driving large vehicles before they were deployed to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) as waste truck drivers.

“We are also considering training and empowering women as Taxi drivers. We are currently examining some security risks that these women might face driving taxis.

“But we hope to partner with some hotels in the state on how we can attach some of these female taxi drivers to them, so that we can track who they are dropping off, in case there is a problem,“ she said.

Orelope-Adefulire, who oversees the Ministry of Women Empowerment, stressed that gender equality and women empowerment were top on the agenda of the Fashola administration.

She said the government had established a number of skills acquisition centres across the state, saying that thousands of women had acquired trade skills at such centres, to set up their businesses.

The deputy governor added that women entrepreneurs who were in need of tools and equipment for their trades had also been assisted by the government with such needs.

She said the government, through the ministry, had facilitated micro-credits for small-scale business women, to assist them grow their businesses.

Orelope-Adefulire said the government was making steady progress at attaining the 35 per cent Affirmative Action with the appointment of more women into top positions in the state.

“Though we are yet to attain 35 per cent AfirmativeAction, we are aggressively working towards it.Today. we have more and more women occupying top positions in government.

“68 judges, 92 magistrates and 52 Permanent Secretaries is a indeed progress. We are still working harder and we will surely surpass the 35 per cent target at the end of the day,“ she said.

The deputy governor, however, decried the growing cases of domestic violence in the state, saying that the government was taking appropriate steps to control the trend.