The World Bank Group has restated its commitment to closing disparities between men and women as the world celebrates International Women’s Day.

President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, said this in a message titled; “The World Bank Group and International Women’s Day” posted on the World Bank blogs on Wednesday.

Malpass said the bank’s commitment to gender equality had increased in ambition over time.

“Gender and development has been an International Development Association (IDA) Special Theme since IDA16, recognising that reducing gender disparities is essential for reducing poverty.

“In IDA20, the number of gender policy commitments has increased from six to eight, with ambitious targets in areas including economic inclusion, gender-based violence prevention, and childcare.”

He said entrepreneurship offered an important path to empowerment.

Malpass said the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), based at the World Bank, was supporting tens of thousands of women entrepreneurs, with more than 1.2 billion dollars of financing to date.

He said the International Finance Corporation was working with private sector clients to promote women’s entrepreneurship and advance economic inclusion in the workplace.

“Across the World Bank Group and with partners, clients and donors, there is much work underway that aims to address gender disparities including the ID4D initiative that works to close gender gaps in financial inclusion.

“Others are efforts to reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence and the Gender Innovation Labs that undertake impact evaluations to generate more evidence on how to close gender gaps.

Malpass said the labs were in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

He said most importantly, the bank was integrating gender in its operations worldwide.

“At the World Bank Group, we continue to hold ourselves accountable for progress on achieving more gender-inclusive recruitment, promotion, leadership development, and mentoring programmes.

“We also hold ourselves accounrable in diverse candidate pools and interview panels; enhanced career development and learning opportunities; and greater opportunities for work-life balance.

“Today, women account for 53.5 per cent of our workforce, and 43 per cent of management, a share that has grown significantly.

According to him, there is much work ahead, and International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to galvanise attention and to restate our commitment to closing disparities between men and women which is in the interests of everyone.

Malpass said that addressing critical gender gaps, including female labour force participation, offers an opportunity to boost incomes and stimulate growth.

He said research from the World Bank had repeatedly made clear that accelerating gender equality could generate significant economic gains.

According to him, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2023 report published recently, shows that 2.4 billion women of working age do not have fully equal economic opportunity.

“In 2022, only 34 gender-related legal reforms were recorded across 18 economies, the lowest number since 2001. It is important that the pace of legal reforms accelerates.”

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), on Wednesday urged Nigerians, particularly electorate, to vote peacefully and maintain decorum during and after the March 11 polls.

The Sector Commander of FRSC, Enugu State, Corps Commander Joseph Toby, gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency o Nigeria (NAN) after attending the Inter-agency Consultation Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting in Enugu.

NAN recalls that INEC has scheduled Saturday for Governorship and State Assembly elections in the country.

Toby noted that no meaningful endeavour could be achieved in an atmosphere of rancour and violence.

According to him, Enugu State electorate and the residents in general should continue in their peaceful and matured conduct as exemplified during the just-concluded Feb. 25 polls.

“Nigerians, please go out en masse, be peaceful, cast your votes and go home.

“And if you do not want to go home, stay a distance from the polling units and maintain civility and decorum while the polls last.

“The people contesting these elections are not only Nigerians, but also people living within our neighbourhoods, local government areas and state. They are brothers and sisters, we known them too well.

“We are not foreigners, we are all brothers and sisters and at the end of the day, we will go back to our daily lives and live as one Nigeria,” he said.

The commander said that the Corps had been up and doing in ensuring that vehicles used for election duties were road worthy.

“We have continued to certify road worthiness of vehicles to be used for election duties even at the just-concluded Feb. 25. polls.

“However, it is left for INEC to mobilise them to the field of operation on the election fay as required,” he said.

Mr Babachir Lawal, Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), says Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deserves a second term in office.

This is contained in a statement issued by Lawal on Monday in Yola.

Lawal urged the electorate to vote peacefully in the March 11 Governorship and State Assebly elections

“Many people have been urging me to provide guidance as to my preferred candidate for governor in Adamawa for the next four years.

“It is with this in mind that I urge all the citizens of Adamawa to come out massively and cast their votes for a second term for Gov. Fintiri, because he deserves this,” he said.

He also called on the citizens to ensure that their votes are counted before they leave the polling centres.

Lawal wished citizens a safe, violence-free and successful outing on March 11.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2023 governorship elections will be held for state governors in 31 out of 36 States of the Federation.

All but three elections will be held on Marc 11, concurrent with elections to every state house of assembly, two weeks after the presidential election and National Assembly elections while the Imo State, Kogi and Bayelsa elections will be held on Nov. 11.

NAN reports that all states have a two term limit for Governors which makes 18 incumbent governors ineligible for re-election.