“As we celebrate the 2021 International Women’s Day, we should remain committed to closing the gender divide in the public and private sectors of our economy.

“Evidence has showed that empowering women and girls has considerable impact on economic growth and development.

“The United Nations has made gender equality central to its work and we’ve seen remarkable progress in the past 20 years.

“There are more girls in school now compared to 15 years ago, and most regions have reached gender parity in primary education.

“However, we should underscore the risk that current security challenges pose to girl child education in some parts of our country.

“The government needs to urgently put an end to the recurrent assault on girl child education by terrorists and bandits in some parts of the country,” she said.

The LCCI President also urged the full participation of women in strategic decision-making to drive change.

This, she said, was the only way to build foundation for a stronger, sustainable and inclusive growth that benefits and creates opportunities for all.

“We must all scale up efforts to reduce gender gap and truly drive an inclusive economic growth.

“Together, we can design, develop and deliver better gender policies for better lives,” she said. (NAN)