Empowerment Summit on Women Cooperatives in Bayelsa State

The Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) organised Empowerment Summit on Women Cooperatives in Bayelsa State. Participants in the Summit were drawn from Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Ministry of Women Affairs, NDDC, Bureau for Cooperatives, Bayelsa State, Private Sector, Central Bank of Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Africa Development Bank and other Microfinance Banks, Civil Society and Grassroots women in Cooperatives. The discussions during the Summit is focused on providing policy frameworks to supporting grassroots women empowerment initiatives; keying into states’ existing empowerment initiatives for women; and facilitating soft loans to women cooperatives. CEHRD is positive that at the end of the summit, there will be consensus among participants matched with concrete actions for setting up of platforms to empowering women cooperatives in the state; opening up of states’ empowerment initiatives for women cooperatives in the State and getting Bayelsa State government’s buy-in and commitment towards the support of women’s cooperatives in the State. This is with support from the Embassy of the Netherlands, Abuja.