Lagos APU urges government to empower women

President of Arondizuogu Patriotic Union (APU), Women’s Wing, Lagos branch, Mrs. Ijeoma Enekwa, has urged the government to encourage and empower women in order to alleviate their sufferings and fulfil their obligations to their families and society.

Mrs. Enekwa made the plea last Sunday at the Union’s 2024 Business Expo held at Arondizogu Hall, Ikate, Surulere Lagos.

Mrs. Enekwa said: “We are here today because of our Business Expo. This is the second edition. This is a trade fair show and an exhibition organized so that members can showcase their products and services.

“The Business Objectives are Financial Stability and Profitability, Growth and Expansion, Customer Satisfaction, Social Responsibility and satiability. Some of the products for exhibition are: Clothes & Fashion Accessories, food stuffs, snacks, cosmetics, health-care and wellness products, bags, Travel Boxes, vehicle tyres, mattresses, Rodenticides , Consultancy Services, Real Estate ,Products, Insurance Products, etc.

“We decided to have our women to come as vendors and exhibit their products and whatever business they are doing. We are doing this in order to patronize our women, our own first before we can go out and reach out to others. That is what we are doing”.

“Today, we have over 30 vendors. All, except one, are our members. This year, we invited Veritas Kapital Assurance. We will involve more companies next year. We want the government to take more interest in women’s business activities and empower them. The team that planned this event is our Empowerment Committee. We want the government to support more women; it will help them go a long way in building and strengthening families.”

In her remarks, the Chairperson of APU Business Expo, Lady Ngozi Aludogbu, said: “This is (APU) Business Expo for women, but we invited our men to come and witness the event. By next year, by His Grace, it will be more than this.

“We have 30 women as participants; they are into different products. The purpose is the awareness to encourage our women to start doing something so that they will not depend on their husbands alone.

“Here, a lady came with 50 turbans and she sold all. She made the stuff by herself. We have intention of expanding it next year. It will be bigger and better than this. We will invite external bodies. We have 16 villages and we have more than one participant from each village. Our people came from different areas of Lagos State, Yaba, Oshodi, Ikorodu, Ikeja, Satellite Town, Festac, Badagry, etc.”

“I want the government to encourage women, if they can give them loan, it will encourage them now because women are the pillars of different homes”.

Also speaking at the occasion, a participant, Mrs. Ijeoma Theo-Nwangwu, stated: “We are having our trade and exhibition to promote the businesses of our members. It is our second edition as you can see, it is highly successful. It helps the women to know that they could be productive and resourceful too. No woman is supposed to be idle.  Others who showed up; some of them are not business people but may be interested in investing in business.

“My Business is real Estate. l am a broker and also a developer. l have been in real estate business for a long time; my main focus in today’s business is to help the women in real estate investment. Some of them who can not buy properties will get the chance of investing and have a high yield return of their investment after 12 months”.

Another participant, Mrs. Ann Okeke, said: “We are here for our business Expo. l am one of the Exhibitors. I am doing vehicle tyre business of different sizes, truck tyres, Trailer tyres, any one. l have been in this business for  more than 25 years now, l am into the business because l like it; it’s the business my husband has been doing for over 30 years now and l joined him in the business.

“I am asking the public that they should not be patronizing old tyres, it is not advisable. I am advising every one to buy new brand tyre, tested and trusted. I am telling the government that they should try as much as possible to stop those who are importing fairly-used tyres because they are not good for our roads and country”, Mrs. Okeke stated.

Most of the products and food they brought for sale were sold off at the event.

For a better society