Diatom Impact Pushes for Women’s Participation in Politics with ElectHer Academy

Sunday Ehigiator

Diatom Impact, in partnership with ElectHer, Academy, has began push to activate and engage more women in the political process with the aim to build a productive, and healthy community.

This push stemmed from the belief that investing in girls and women would create a ripple effect that would yield multiple benefits, not only for individual women, but also for families, communities, and countries.

In a recent statement signed by Diatom Impact in conjunction with the Co-founders of ElectHer, Abosede George-Ogan and Ibijoke Faborede, it revealed that ElectHer was on a mission to support 1000 women to run for office in 2023, while enjoying funding support from Diatom Impact.

“In many African societies, women’s participation in development efforts, decision-making and politics is low.

“The national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained 6.7 per cent in elective and appointive positions, which is far below the global average of 22.5 per cent, Africa regional average of 23.4 per cent and West African sub-regional average of 15 per cent.

“Studies show that increasing women’s participation in politics leads to greater investments in education, and companies with female board representation boast higher returns on investment.

“Research also suggests that gender balance in the political sphere promotes gender balance in the workforce, which could double global GDP growth by 2025.

“In July this year, Diatom Impact, a member of Platform Capital Group, supported ElectHER with a grant of $50,000 in perpetuity.

“Founded by Abosede George-Ogan and Ibijoke Faborode, ElectHER is a non-partisan end-to-end women’s political advancement organisation bridging inequality gaps in Nigerian politics by addressing the under-representation of Nigerian women in elective office through behavioral change communications, skills development, human capital mobilisation and campaign financing, with an end-goal to enable capable women to competitively Decide, Run, and Win elections.

“The funds donated by Diatom Impact, an arm of Platform Capital, will go towards the setting up and launching the ElectHER Academy which will provide access to quality online and offline training for at least 1,000 women interested in politics.

“As part of Platform Capital Group, Diatom Impacta research and impact focused organisation is focused on five areas critical to economic and social development; health, education, entrepreneurship, gender equality and quality of life.”

Highlighting the work being done in the area of gender equality, the Founder, Platform Capital, Dr. Akintoye Akindele said, “The great work that ElectHER is doing is aligned with our gender equality goals at Platform Capital.

“Promoting women into leadership and supporting their participation in politics, government, and business across all levels of society is key if we want to ensure the Africa of our dreams.

“Women are the cornerstone of the society and data has proven that empowering women has a greater net effect on the community. We must embrace this and continue to uplift women for the development of our continent,” he said.