Bayelsa Govt Partners Women Engineers in Infrastructural Devt

… To Encourage Women Participation in Project Execution

Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ehwrudjakpo, has said that the administration would partner the Association of Professional Women Engineers in the area of infrastructural development.

He stated this on Wednesday, when he received in audience, the state chapter of the Association of Professional Women Engineers led by its vice chairperson, Mrs. Ifiemi Tulagha-Ocholi, in Government House, Yenagoa.

Senator Ehwrudjakpo assured that government would also encourage contractors to engage and utilise relevant state based women professionals as a way of boosting local content participation.

The deputy governor noted that engineers were critical to societal development and enjoined them to spread their tentacles to other parts of the world.

According to him, the crop of female engineers in the state has the experience and capacity to compete favourably with their peers, and urged them to bring their expertise to bear on the development of the state.

He enjoined the female engineers to open a channel of communication with the ministry of Works and Infrastructure and contractors, who would require their wealth of experience, skills and competence in relevant areas.

He said: “We will encourage our contractors to engage our female engineers who are not employed.

“We are going to have an open channel of communication as we get contractors to work on site. The state government will insist that as part of quota system, when they want to get their local content in terms of engineers, they should not bring their women from outside; rather they should encourage our women in supervision.

“I encourage you to use yourselves as a positive role model to those looking up to you,” he said.

Vice Chairperson of the Association of Professional Women Engineers, Mrs. Ifiemi Tulagha-Ocholi, said women have distinguished themselves in a male-dominated field as engineering, in spite of seeming odds.

She explained that the association encourages women engineers to succeed as well as make the desired progress in their careers, while also assisting engineering students in tertiary institutions to acquire practical skills.

Mrs. Tulagha-Ocholi hinted that the association’s programmes are geared towards employing, retaining and advancing female engineers through career services, professional development and networking both locally and internationally.

She used the occasion to call on the state government to invest in women and girl-child education, especially in science and engineering while considering the input of women in various fields of engineering to solve developmental challenges.

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