The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo mni, NPOM, has on Friday, called on State Governments to domesticate the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act, which was signed into law in 2019 by the Muhammadu Buhari's administration.

According to statement from the Ministry, the Permanent Secretary made the call at the opening ceremony of the the Conference of Directors Responsible for the Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria held on the 9th September, 2022, in Abuja.

He said that the Act which provides for the full integration of PWDs into the society has led to the establishment of the National Commission for Person's with Disabilities vested with the responsibilities for education, health care, social, economic and civil rights of PWDs and other related matters.

He urged the states to domesticate this Act for effective service delivery to all PWDs across the country.

Gwarzo said that the objective of the Annual Conference of Directors Responsible for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities is to provide a platform for experience sharing, brainstorming and learning lessons on issues affecting the well-being of PWDs as well as charting a way forward on effective service delivery for PWDs in the country.

Speaking further he harped on the need for the Directors and Chief Executives to meet annually so as to come up with implementable decisions that will improve the quality of lives of PWDs to enable them contribute meaningfully to national development as well as keeping abreast on current and emerging issues and how to effectively initiate programmes for PWDs. He said that this year's conference is a follow-up on the observations and recommendations contained in the Communique issued during the year 2021 Conference of Directors.

Gwarzo informed that some of the issues raised in the Last Communique of the conference are implemented by organising programmes and activities that will actualize their respective objectives. He reeled out some of the achievements of the Ministry over the years such as continually trained visually impaired adults at the Nigeria Farmcraft Center for the Blind, where Fifty five of them graduated in 2021/2022 session and Forty Seven are currently enrolled in the 2022/2023 session,
regularly providing Assistive Devices and Empowerment tools to over Five thousand individual Person's with Disabilities through Federal, State and Disability focused NGOs, launch of the Road map on local Production of Standardised Assistive Technologies for PWDs in Nigeria, amongst others.

The high point of the event was the declaration of the Conference open by Gwarzo and he challenged the Participants to brainstorm on ways of improving the quality of life of PWDs in Nigeria with implementable recommendations that will help the Ministry achieve it's collective mandate.

Earlier in her Welcome Remarks, the Director, Special Needs Mrs Nkechi Onwukwe, outlined the objectives of this year's Conference to include: Providing a platform for experience sharing, brain- storming and learning lessons on issues affecting the welfare of PWDs and
Charting a way forward on effective service delivery for PWDs in the country.

According to her, it is noteworthy that the State Directors and Chief Executives have just completed a 2-day capacity building on some specific areas of programming which included Resource Mobilization, Project Planning and Management as well as Monitoring and Evaluation which was intended to enhance their skills and knowledge on these areas.

Onwukwe further stated that the Ministry will continue with it's conscious effort towards addressing issues that relate to Person's with Disabilities in Nigeria and called for more effective collaboration with all stakeholders especially the states.

There were good Will messages from the Representative of FCT Secretariat, Representative of Country Director, Sightsavers who declared their willingness for more partnership with the Ministry amongst others.

The Conference of Directors and Chief Executives responsible for the Rehabilitation of Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria is an annual event comprising of the Directors of the 36 States and FCT.