Abuja — Minister for Women Affairs, Obong Rita Akpan has said that for any reasonable progress to be made in tackling issues concerning women and children in Nigeria, education of the girl child must be made a priority.

Akpan made this call while receiving Mrs. Rosann Wisman, Senior Vice President of the Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) Washington-USA in Abuja.

She noted that a well educated woman is an asset as she is always in tune with issues affecting her, hinting that the Women Affairs Ministry intends to give scholarships to girls in the Northern part of the country and boys from the south as a way of striking an educational balance between North and South.

Akpan stressed the need to work in partnership with CEDPA, especially in the area of capacity building and talking HIV/AIDS in the country. She added that more women should be trained to train others to understand issues concerning them.

She decried the dearth of experts on technical issues relating to women in the ministry, which has added to the constraints in carrying out programmes in the office.

She observed that the main preoccupation of the ministry was workshops and seminars because of the lack of experts to link the needs of the ministry such as the training of personnel to handle technical issues on women.

The minister called for the need to discuss with different sectors and agencies and to set up a policy framework that will benefit the ministry and its target population.

Responding, Rosman said she was in the country to familiarise herself with other stakeholders to see where more partnerships and assistance could be worked out.