A Non-Governmental Organisation , NGO, the Neighbourhood Initiative for Woman Advancement, NIWA, with support from OXFAM and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, has organised a one-day core advocacy capacity training, for women entrepreneurs in Ebonyi State, South East Nigeria.
_Summitnews_ reports that the one day training programme held at the Cirenes Hotel in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, was for registered members of the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network, ANWBN, in the State.
Facilitator of the programme and Coordinator of the Neighborhood Initiative for Woman Advancement, NIWA in Ebonyi State, Mrs Nancy Oko-Onya, explained that the organisation, in collaboration with OXFAM, took up the project through its partner, CISLAC, the secretariat of the Tax Justice and Governance Platform, TJ&GP in Nigeria, to encourage them to advocate for tax administration system that would be equitable for Ebonyi women in business.
She said the programme would also strengthen the state chapter of the organisation, on gender and tax equity and transparency, as it will ensure mutual leverage on the knowledge and experiences of all partner organisations.
According to her, “the capacity training would clarify linkages and roles of other members in the strategy towards contributing to trade, tax, and investment policy reforms that would also enable government to promote inclusive and sustainable development for the benefit of female owners of small and medium scale businesses.”
She further said, “the project which is currently engaging women in business in Ebonyi and Lagos states would also activate the people’s agency, mostly women who feel the impact of unfair taxation, by strengthening their knowledge, capacity and consciousness and support them to advocate for a shift in tax policy through the use of evidence and working within a collective impact.”
A resource person at the programme, Chinedu Basi, advised the women to observe their collective impact while pushing forward, the strategies aimed at making progress on the identified issues that bordering their network, including the collection of multiple statutory and non statutory taxes, levies and fees, which he identified as the inequity problems facing their members across the nation.
His words: “always review your issue or policy ask and clarify your cluster objective. There is a need to examine and refine your cluster intent and commitment, ensuring that you have a collective impact, a set of principles and conditions for tackling complex social problems that cannot be solved by a single organisation.”
Basi also advised women in business to always try to understand policy advocacy; by having a clear understanding of the issues involved, just as they should always be familiar with the key principles of public policy advocacy and also understand the role of a policy brief in advocacy network.
At the interactive session, members of the Ebonyi State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Business Women Network, ANBWN, told the forum that they formed the association to promote businesses owned by women in the state, just as their leader, Mrs Chinagorom Okereke, said the association also serves as an advocacy group for the girl children.
She explained that the association was leveraging on existing institutions to achieve the different goals of the member organisations, while working in synergy to tackle issues affecting them.
She said, ‘’by the 1999 Constitution Section 40, no one should be discriminated against as a result of sex and property inheritance. ANWBN Ebonyi State Chapter seeks implementation of this and protection of the vulnerable persons, among us, especially the widows.”
She regretted that businesses owned by women in the state have suffered setbacks due to lack of funds, ignorance, limited access to information, cultural limitations and early marriage.
Mrs Okereke further listed poor access to laws and policies on women’s business development, hostile business environment orchestrated by multiple taxation and revenue generation fees from authorised and unauthorised bodies, as some of the issues working against women’s businesses in Ebonyi State.
“It is because the method of revenue collection is harsh, the revenue collectors use excessive force on traders; destroy wares, embark on non-procedural seizure of goods, with non-assessment of business and arbitrary charges,’’ she alleged.
She, therefore called for urgent provision of conducive business environment in Ebonyi State, contending that it was the only condition that would encourage more women to venture into businesses in the area.
Esem Chima who represented the Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Princess Patricia Obila at the event, urged the women in business to try to identify what they paid taxes for, to enable the state government to guide them. She emphasised the need for the group to pay a courtesy visit to the chairman of the state’s Board of Internal Revenue, for their issues to be addressed.
