 Good morning everyone. I'm very delighted to join you at the International Woman Leadership Conference 2022. And we must all commend the Ipukungawoshika Leadership Academy and the Dubai Tourism and Dubai Events for this unique partnership committed to building a network of powerful women maximizing their growth potential and capacity and creating opportunities for sustainable peer mentorship. The poorest countries of the world are those who have low rates of female education and career attainment. All rich countries, small or large, have over 80 percent female education. These countries with higher levels of gender equality in education and career attainment tend to have higher income levels, better lifestyles and better health outcomes. According to the Makinzi Global Institute, Nigeria's GDP could grow by as much as 23 percent by 2025 if women participated in the economy to the same extent as men. But despite these facts, the IFC's 2021 Gender Diap Assessment Report showed that women in Nigeria make up only 20 percent of the executive teams, only 17 percent of board chairs and none of the leading companies listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange has both a female CEO and CFO and none achieve gender balance at the senior management level. Gender equality in political representation and in senior government jobs is also strategically important because perhaps the most profoundly impactful decisions on the lives of the majority of people are made by governments through the agency of public officers and legislators. So gender parity in those positions will mean women being in a position to influence policies, especially those that would affect the fortunes of women and girls. So a conference such as this whose objective is among others to bridge the gap between technical knowledge and other necessary skills required to compete effectively with men in the place of leadership is not just a leadership conference for women, it is an important development conference for countries of the world, especially developing countries. Women breaking glass ceilings in industry, in politics, in commerce is perhaps more important than men doing the same because women are the half of our human resource that are yet to be fully optimized on account of lack of education and discriminatory practices in the workplace. And to the theme of the conference women in leadership playing to win. I think there is some acknowledgement of the growing numbers and influence of women as heads and chairs of multilateral and multinational organizations, industry, entertainment, technology and innovation and successful business owners. But the lack of synergy and collaboration in terms of sharing useful, hard and especially soft skills has slowed down the speed of progress and the numbers of women in leadership generally. It would be interesting to hear what ideas emerge as to what can really be done to break the barriers of silo achievements that do not benefit the whole. But generally anybody of knowledge will still need to be gathered and disseminated and this leadership conference will certainly yield several useful learnings on what I must say is a new area of thought competing effectively with men in higher echelons of human endeavor. The next task is how to effectively disseminate this body of knowledge that will be gathered and this new body of knowledge may find its way into university curricula either at the graduate or undergraduate level. Whatever happens your learnings from here and perhaps others on the subject in the future must be shared for the benefit of women. Let me end with the point being made in the second part of the theme of this conference that is playing to win. The point is important because it confronts the tokenism that female representation sometimes suggests. So the role of women must go beyond merely breaking glass ceilings. It must be to attain global excellence and leadership. Women must play not just to be represented but to win. Finally, let me again commend the co-convene of this event, Mrs. Ibuko Awoshika, for always giving so generously of her time, resources and experience to give others a better shot at their careers and plans. I must also thank you for your support for the Federal Government's Economic Sustainability Plan by co-chairing the MSME Survival Funds Committee with the Honorable Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment and accomplished an experienced bureaucrat in her own right, Ambassador Maryam Katagoun. So let me wish you all very fruitful and useful conversations. Thank you very much for your kind attention.