Kano State Government has initiated a commitment to partner with Bridge Connect African Initiative to promote women’s economic empowerment to reduce poverty and gender violence.

The collaboration with the non-governmental organization is intended to stimulate a sustainable environment conducive to clean energy, designed to mitigate carbon gas emission and other related impacts on climate conditions in Kano.

The Senior Special Adviser to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf on Women’s Education, Engr. Yasmin Muktar, who gave the commitment, disclosed that the new vista of opportunity with Bridge Connect will further complement the government programs and policies on women’s empowerment.

Muktar spoke when she received the team on a courtesy call at her office at the government house, stressing that Governor Yusuf is committed to promoting access to sustainable farming and creating an enabling environment for women to be self-reliant.

She reminded that the government, through her office, has anchored several capacity-building training for young women on clean bio-cooking systems, digital skills designed to better the living conditions of women.

By so doing, Engr. Muktar emphasized Governor Yusuf’s policy framework to sustain micro and small-scale businesses for women to alleviate poverty.

Communications Lead for Bridge Connect Africa Initiative, Juliet Nwobodo, said the collaboration with Kano state government, especially in women empowerment and ending gender based violence, focusing on climate change, will further expand the scope of the project being anchored by BCAI.

Nwobodo, who doubles as Project Lead for the Waves Project for Women Against Biodiversity and Poultry Sustainability, disclosed the recently concluded capacity building for 50 women in Kano, believing that fostering collaboration will enrich technical support and widen the number of beneficiaries.

“Bridge Connect has trained about 50 women in the area of agricultural production and processing, and we appreciate the N500,000
support of Kano state government through the office of the SSA on women’s education,” Nwobodo said.

“This is a way for us to end gender-based violence, because when women are empowered, they can start engaging in gender-based violence. During our discussion, she acknowledged that the government is really interested in projects like this and is w
illing to keep on supporting women and initiatives that support women.

“So, we saw an area of collaboration with her in future projects, and also to expand the scope of our projects, because at the beginning of the project, we just had 15 women. But with this collaboration, we see that we are going to actually achieve our goal of reaching more women by collaborating with the government and other development partners in improving the scope of the project.”