Obasanjo, Abiodun, Others For PAWISCA Inauguration

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogun Governor, Dapo Abiodun, Governors and other dignitaries are expected at the inauguration of Platform for African Women in Smart Climate Agriculture (PAWISCA), in Abeokuta, Ogun State on November 1-2.

The Nigeria representative of the United States-based Foundation, Bishop (Mrs) Bola Oyegbami stated this recently at a briefing in Lagos heralding the inauguration of the Foundation and its areas of focus across the federation.

According to her, the organisation’s plan aims at arresting the social economic setback through a positive innovation for the mobilization of human and material resources for massive employment, and engagement for jobs and wealth opportunities for improved quality of livelihood of people.

She identified water technology, and agriculture with support to access major markets and export, sanitation, and financial services as major projects of the organisation in Nigeria.

Oyegbami said: “In PAWISCA, we have four major projects and Lagos State is a pilot project for all other States to replicate. The first one is water technology. In water technology, we are going to take our water from the Atlantic Ocean. This is salty water but we are doing something similar to what is in operation in Dubai. In the Atlantic ocean now, the process by which you can remove the salt is by desalination. This is what we are going to do. But the plant and machinery we are going to use will come all the way from the United States of America.

“In our agricultural and agribusiness value chain project plan, we wish to, through our policy programme on quality assurance/quality control value chain and total quality organic agro and allied products, hope to produce goods of high quality in our integrated value-chain agro-industrial part that will meet the international standard under a competitive free market economy.”

Oyegbami, who stated the Foundation’s project will be replicated across the country with a pilot scheme taking off in Lagos State, pleaded with State Governments to cooperate with the organisation through approval for land for their projects as they vigorously aim to lift rural women and girl child out of poverty and misery many women are currently battling with.