National Centre for Women Development


The National Centre for Women Development is a Nigerian state-owned enterprise based in Abuja. It was established in 1997.

History

The NWCD was commissioned on 17 October 1997, and modelled on the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. It works in collaboration with Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. Between 1997 and 2003 the NCWD published a magazine, Images of the Nigerian Woman.
In 2013 President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Onyeka Onwenu as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NCWD. Onwenu served for two and a half years, claiming to have raised morale under difficult conditions in which she faced some ethnic opposition. In February 2016 President Muhammadu Buhari removed Onwenu, appointing Abdulmalik Dauda to succeed her as Acting Director General. Onwenu criticised Dauda for reversing some staffing changes. Dauda died in April 2016. In 2017 Mary Ekpere-Eta was appointed Director General of NCWD.

Hall of Fame

The NWCD celebrates the achievement of prominent Nigerian women with a Hall of Fame. Names of notable Nigerian women are etched in marble on the wall. The wall includes First Ladies of Nigeria such as Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, Maryam Babangida, Stella Obasanjo and Patience Jonathan, and other prominent women such as Dr Elizabeth Awoliyi, Senator Franca Afegbua, Dr Dora Akunyili, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mrs Doyin Abiola, Prof Grace Alele Williams and Mrs Sarah Jibrin. In 2007, 27 women were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In June 2019, 22 more women were inducted:
  1. Alhaja Kudirat Abiola
  2. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh
  3. Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf
  4. Alhaja Abibat Mogaji
  5. Barr Oby Nwankwo
  6. Regina Achi Nentui
  7. Iyom Josephine Anenih
  8. Oluremi Tinubu
  9. Binta Garba
  10. Hajiya Mariya Sunusi Dantata
  11. Stella Okoli
  12. Adenike Osofisan
  13. Priscilla Ekwueme Eleje
  14. Adebimpe Bologun
  15. Iyalode Alaba Lawson
  16. Folorunsho Alakija
  17. Nike Okundaye
  18. Mo Abudu
  19. Itunu Hotonu
  20. Blessing Liman
  21. Abimbola Jaiyeola
  22. Maureen Mmadu