Lagos Employs Women As Truck Drivers

As part of efforts to empower women in the State, the Lagos State Government has employed the services of 70 women as heavy truck drivers.

The Deputy Governor of the State, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire disclosed this to newsmen at a press conference in Lagos recently.

Mrs Orelope-Adefulire said the women were trained on how to drive heavy trucks before they were deployed to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) as waste truck drivers.

According to her, the state is also considering training and empowering women as Taxi drivers. “We are currently examing some security risks that these women might face driving taxi”, she said.

She further explained that the State Government is making an arrangement to partner with some Hotels and Airports in the state on how they can attach some of these female taxi drivers to them.

The Deputy Governor, who oversees the Ministry of Women Empowerment, buttressed that gender equality and women empowerment were top on the agenda of the Governor Fashola Administration.

Orelope-Adefulire said the government had established a number of Skills Acquisition centres across the state, saying that thousands of women had acquired trade skills at such centres to set up their busineses.

She added that women entrepreneurs who were in need of tools and equipment for their trades had also been assisted by the government with such needs.

The Deputy Governor explained further that the government, through the ministry, had facilitated micro-credits for small scale business to women, to assist their business grow.

She posited that the state government was making steady  progress at attaining the 35 percent affirmative action with the appointment of more women into top positions in the state.

“Though we are yet to attain 35 percent affirmative action, we are aggressively working towards it. Today, we have more and more women occupying top positons in government. 68 Judges, 92 magistrates and 52 permanent secretaries is indeed in progress. We are still working harder and we will surely surpass the 35 percent target”. The Deputy Governor said.

Though she lamented the growing cases of domestic violence in the state, saying that the government was making frantic efforts to control the trend.