A non-governmental organisation NGO known as the Neighbourhood Initiative for Woman Advancement, NIWA with support from the OXFAM and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAG, has organised a one-day core advocacy capacity training for the registered members of the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network, ANWBN, Ebonyi State chapter.
Mrs Nancy Oko-Onya, the State NIWA Coordinator and facilitator of the programme held at the Cirenes Hotel Abakaliki said the NIWA embarked on the project in collaboration with OXFAM through its partner CISLAG which is also the secretariat of the Tax Justice and Governance Platform, TJ&GP in Nigeria to strengthen the capacity of ANWBN and TJ&GP to advocate for tax administration system that would be equitable for women in business in the state.
She further stated that the programme was aimed at strengthening the state chapter members on gender and tax equity and transparency and ensuring mutual leverage on the knowledge and experiences of all partner organisations.
Mrs Oko-Onya also noted that the capacity training would clarify linkages and roles of other members of the collective in the strategy towards contributing to trade, tax, and investment policy reforms that enable the government to promote inclusive and sustainable development for the benefit of female small and medium scale business owners, their communities and domestic economies.
The facilitator maintained that the project, which is currently engaging women in business in Ebonyi and Lagos states would activate the people’s agency (mostly women) who feel the impact of unfair taxation by strengthening their knowledge, capacity and consciousness; support them to advocate for a shift in tax policy through the use of evidence and working within a collective.
The resource person of the programme, Chinedu Basi, advised the women in business to observe their collective impact while pushing forward the strategies aimed at making progress on the identified issues bordering their network, which included a collection of multiple statutory and non-statutory taxes, levies and fees as the inequity problem facing their members across the nation.
“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 you have a collective impact, a set of principles and conditions for tackling complex social problems that cannot be solved by a single organisation.
"Also, try to understand policy advocacy; by having a clear understanding of what is and what is not policy advocacy; be familiar with understanding with the key principles of public policy advocacy and understand the role of a policy brief in advocacy network,’’ Basi advised.
The Ebonyi ANWBN members during the interaction session, said they formed the association to promote business owned by women in the state. Their Contact Person, Mrs Chinagorom Okereke, said the ANWBN also serves as an advocacy group for the girl children, leveraging on existing institutions to achieve the different goals of the member organisations while working synergy to tackle issues affecting them.
‘’By virtue of the 1999 Constitution Section 40, no one should be discriminated against as a result of sex (property inheritance) ANWBN Ebonyi State Chapter seeks implementation of this and protection of the vulnerable persons, among us, especially the widows, Mrs Okereke pointed out.
She lamented that the women-owned businesses have been suffering setbacks in the state due to lack of funds, ignorance, limited access to information, obnoxious cultural limitations and early marriage.
She added: "Poor access to laws and policies on women's business development, hostile business environment orchestrated by multiple taxation and revenue generation fees from authorized and unauthorized bodies are also some of the contextual issues working against our businesses in Ebonyi State.
"It is because the method of revenue collection is harsh, the revenue collectors use excessive force, some of them exploit from traders; destroy wares, embark on non-procedural seizure of goods; with non-assessment of business and arbitrary charges,’’ she alleged.
The group leader demanded that a conducive environment should be provided for businesses to thrive in Ebonyi, saying this would encourage more women to venture into business in the state.
However, Esem Chima who represented the state Deputy Governor, Princess Patricia Onyemaechi Obila, urged the women in business to try to identify what they paid for as taxes, to enable the state government to guide them on how to go about it, emphasizing the need for the group to pay a courtesy visit to the state Chairman IGR board to address the issue.
Nwachukwu Allison, who represented the State Ministry of Markets and Parks Development, said the state government remains committed to addressing the plights of the traders without fear or favour in the state.
