President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, CON has pledged the commitment of the 10th Assembly to speedily consider and pass gender-based bills in the ongoing Constitution amendment process.

Akpabio, who was represented by Senator Sunday Karimi, made it known on Monday at the opening of a workshop organized for all female legislators at the national and state assemblies in Abuja.

The workshop, which was organised by National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS in partnership with UN-Women organized“ The Role of Legislators in Enhancing Gender Responsive Legislations and Budgeting in Nigeria”

Also speaking, Speaker of the House of Representatives, represented by the House Leader, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, said the House was committed to gender responsive budgeting and representation.

Abbas said: “In the House of Representatives, our commitment goes beyond gender responsive budgeting to gender representation as obtainable in other countries of the world .

“The current statistics which show that women representation in the current 10th National Assembly is 3.91%, as against 23.8% in Kenya, 33.81% in Uganda, 37.5% in Tanzania etc, do not portray Nigeria in good light and shall surely be looked into legislatively ahead of the 2027 general election.”

In his welcome address, the Director General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said the collaborative workshop is apt and timely considering the increasing advocacy for gender mainstreaming and Gender Responsive Budgeting.

According to him, the overall objective of the workshop is to create a platform for discussions and actions to advance Gender Responsive Budgeting in Nigeria, with the ultimate goal of creating a society where everyone, regardless of gender, has equal opportunities and access to resources.