Throughout the last decade, Nigeria’s Lady Mechanic Initiative has trained more than 700 women in mechanical skills, enabling them to become professionals in automobile repairs across five of the country’s states.

The NPO was founded by Sandra Aguebor-Ekperuoh – Nigeria’s first female mechanic – who first started repairing vehicles more than 30 years ago. In an interview with Daily Trust, she explains that the idea behind the initiative is for ‘girls and women to acquire skills, defeat poverty, live a better life and create wealth’.

The initiative has now set itself a 15-month goal that will see it complete production on a first-of-its-kind prototype vehicle that will have been designed and built by the programme’s female mechanics.

What’s more, All Africa reports that the country’s federal government has offered its support in an effort to close the gender gap that exists in the West African country’s engineering fields.

15 March 2016
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