President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration remains committed to eradicating poverty & enhancing development for women & girls.
He added that Nigeria will conduct a review on laws that protect women, including laws touching on offences of rape, child defilement and gender-based violence to enhance laws addressing violence against women and girls.
The President disclosed this in a statement to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, ushering in the UN’s “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence”.
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Today, November 25, the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women; ushering in the UN’s “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.” In demonstration of our administration’s commitment to addressing violence against women and girls,
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) November 25, 2020
The President disclosed that Nigeria is conducting a review of existing laws touching on violence against women and girls to boost the national response.
“We are conducting a review of all the existing laws and policy instruments touching on offences of rape, child defilement and gender-based violence, to enable us put in place measures that enhance and strengthen the national response.
“Our Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) under the Joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and other critical stakeholders has also developed a National Tool for Gender-based Violence Data Management in Nigeria.
“The tool is expected to serve as a consolidated database to record and assess the occurrence of GBV during the COVID-19 period and beyond; it is also to document all forms of violence against women and girls in Nigeria using a single, harmonised data collection tool,” the President stated.
He added that Nigeria remains committed to the eradication of poverty and improving development for women, citing welfare schemes launched by the FG since 2019 which have targeted women.
“Our administration remains committed to eradicating poverty & enhancing development for women & girls. In the last year, over one million Nigerians have been enrolled into National Social Register of poor & vulnerable households to enable them to access needed social assistance.
“In order to address gender-based poverty, we have initiated programmes such as: Tradermoni, Marketmoni and Farmersmoni under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP. More than half of GEEP beneficiaries so far are women,” he stated.
He added that Nigeria has implemented strategies to improve the quality of life for women and girls.
“Redoubling our efforts to improve access to productive resources for women and girls as well as continue to ensure the protection of fundamental rights,” he added.
What you should know
The World Bank reported in 2013 that the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2013 (NPC and ICF International 2014) indicated that 28 per cent of women in Nigeria aged 15–49 have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence; 11 percent had experienced phys-ical violence within the 12 months prior to the survey.
