Foundation pledges capacity building for Nigerian women

Inter-Bau Foundation has pledged to empower more Nigerian women and build their capacities.

The Foundation, which is the Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) arm of an indigenous construction company, Inter-Bau Construction Limited, made the promise yesterday during the graduation of students from the maiden edition of its Project Train Ten Thousand Artisans (PTTA) initiative held at Ikoyi, Lagos.

The Bank of Industry (BOI) supports the project.

Executive Director of the foundation, Muyiwa Bolarinwa, who spoke with The Guardian during the ceremony, said the foundation took up the project to bridge the gap between male and female construction workers across the world.

“This Foundation was established in October 2019 but it began full operation later in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today, we are graduating 35 students from our soft skill class and 14 students from the core skill class. We taught students in soft skill courses on how to succeed in the construction industry, project management and entrepreneurial skill and the core skill is where we trained them in artisanship such as carpentry, painting and bricklaying. So, today we are graduating nine painters and five carpenters,” he said.

On why the foundation embarked on the project, he explained: “The reason we decided to focus on women was that we noticed the construction industry is more of men than women.

We also know that the industry is the second-largest employee of labour in the world. Research has shown that over 60 per cent of Nigerian women live under the poverty line. So, what we are trying to do is to attract the women who are under the poverty line to earn the skill to be functional in the industry.

“We are interested in increasing the economic capacity of women in Nigeria and also engender the construction industry to see men and women working together.”

Speaking on the next phase of the project, Bolarinwa added: “We have various programmes targeted at the women. So after this programme, which was sponsored by the Bank of Industry (BOI), we will organise a career fair in partnership with the German government on October 23, 2021, where we will be bringing employers of labour such as Julius Berger and others so they can meet directly with these women and the women will also have the opportunity for instant employment at the career fair.”

Speaking with The Guardian, one of the beneficiaries, Martins Deborah, a Painting and Decoration graduate, said: “After the graduation ceremony, I will concentrate on painting production and application. I can do different things with what I learnt here.”