A Non Governmental Organisation, (NGO), Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI) has charged women cab drivers in the state to uphold good ethical conduct and integrity in their business.

Founder of the NGO and wife of the Rivers State Governor Dame Judith Amaechi stated this recently during a meeting with executive of the ESI Lady Cabbies Association in Port Harcourt.

Mrs. Amaechi said the women empowerment initiative was another effort at balancing gender ineequality between male and female professionals in the transport sector. She thus urged the female operators to distinguish themselves with good ethical conduct and integrity.

The governor’s wife, who stated that women participation in public transportation, is a new initiative that may have taken the country by storm, saying that its teething challenges are surmountable, if faced with sincerity.

“The involvement of women may be a threat to the men who may perceive the women as competitors, who are privileged to benefit from a collective effort, and they want to frustrate you, but you must realise that you are the nation’s builders who should not be discouraged by this challenge”, she said.

 She also pledged to provide additional two hundred vehicles to more women in its women empowerment scheme as a means of boosting the state’s economy by providing means of livelihood for families.

“I will also make available 200 taxis for more women because we have seen that it is a veritable instrument for women empowerment”, the governor’s wife said.

 The ESI became the first NGO in the country to pioneer women empowerment through participation in commercial transportation. The NGO has currently employed 113 women through the lady cabby scheme.