Popular pastor and prominent motivational speaker Ibukun Awosika says that women are a significant asset to nation-building.

Awosika made this comment at the recently concluded Woman-to-Woman Conference organized by the House on the Rock, The Refuge, Abuja on Sunday, May 12.

The prominent banker is the first female Chairperson of the First Bank of Nigeria.

The conference, themed “Planted to Flourish,” began on Friday, May 10, and ended on Sunday, May 12.

According to her, a nation that invests as little as 20 percent in its female population will always outperform nations that don't invest in women and only invest in men.

She emphasized that even in churches, women command a larger population, highlighting the importance of harnessing them for societal gains.

She said: “For me, helping every woman, young or old, find her way to be a maximum asset for nation-building and building the house of God is vital. There are more women in the church than men, which means the strategic asset of the church across the nation is the women.

“Even nations, the strategic assets are women and young people because your investment in the young person, if you build it right, will yield more value since they have longer years to give value back to you, so your investment will return to you.

“So, getting young people’s mindset right early enough saves them a lot of trouble and also helps the nation, the community, and the church to have them perform maximally for a much more extended period. But getting the women right means maximizing the most significant portion of the church's population.

It is not a gender thing; if you look at it from a business perspective, what do you do with your most significant asset?

“If nations are brilliant, and you have a 50-50 gender population, and your 50 percent is undermined, you are already disadvantaged. It doesn’t matter how hard the core 50 percent you are investing in works because if another nation only takes 20 percent of that other population and adds it to their core male 50 percent, they will outperform you.

“So, it is a strategic decision for nations, churches, and communities to invest in maximizing the talent that women have.”