IWD: Groups empower girls through mentorship initiative to ensure employability

To ensure that young girls in Nigeria secure jobs easily, especially in the male-dominated sectors of the economy, Lonadek Nigeria Limited has partnered with Vital Voices Nigeria to take the Global Mentoring Walk to young girls in the University of Lagos (UniLag) and Yaba College of Technology (YabaTech).

Speaking at the event on Saturday, Principal Consultant, Lonadek Nigeria Limited, Dr Ibilola Amao, said the initiative aims to eliminate the challenges faced by young girls in securing employment in male-dominated sectors like energy, power, infrastructure, and oil and gas.

According to her, the programme also aligns with the 2022 International Women’s Day (IWD), themed: Breaking the Bias, which means to rise above the limitations facing the girl child globally.

She said, “The whole idea is to go on a walk where captains of industries and leaders would work with girls in higher learning institutions. So we are working with girls from UniLag and YabaTech. The idea is to get each girl to have a mentor who is a captain of industry or a leader who can help them get their first jobs.

“One of the problems we are having in Nigeria is young girls who are trying to get jobs in male-dominated sectors like energy, power, infrastructure, oil and gas, where their employers are predominantly male, have challenges.

“They are expected to compromise and do certain things to get their first job and we cannot continue to complain that there is no diversity in leadership in male-dominated sectors if we don’t get more girls in at the base.”

On the results of previous walks, Amao said the initiative has helped young girls to get jobs faster, as they had mentors who could reach out to other captains of industry to help the mentees get their first job.

Remarking, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), Engr Monsurah Abimbola Alagbe, said APWEN partnered with Lonadek on the initiative because of the positive results of former programmes.

“We want to encourage ladies to go into male-dominated sectors and thrive. They are the better set of people that go into entrepreneurship and that is what this country needs now. Not only to be employees. We should be employers of labour too.

“You know that even before talking about getting jobs, we should get the skills that are needed for the jobs and that is actually what this is all about. We are giving them free internships and free courses,” Alagbe added.