Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim receives an interview with Xinhua before traveling to the capital of China to attend the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women, in Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 10, 2025. (Photo by Olatunji Saliu/Xinhua)

ABUJA, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Global Leaders' Meeting on Women in Beijing represents a pivotal moment for international cooperation to accelerate the agenda for global gender equality, according to Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.

In a recent interview with Xinhua before traveling to the capital of China to attend the meeting, Sulaiman-Ibrahim underscored the historical significance of the event, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, and the 80th anniversary of the United Nations.

"Eighty years of the United Nations General Assembly and 30 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action are a show of the enduring power of multilateralism and the international agreements between countries," the Nigerian official said.

She said the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women presents an opportunity to strengthen ongoing efforts through continued collaboration. "I feel that it is an opportunity to collaborate so that we can achieve greater goals and more aspirations for women, for children, and for the vulnerable population."

Describing the Nigeria-China bond as "partners in progress across various progressive efforts of development," the minister said this high-level engagement will serve as a critical opportunity for Nigeria to deepen its relations with China, focusing on scaling up women's development programs.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim spoke highly of China's remarkable success in lifting its people out of poverty, saying, "China is one of the countries that have been able to empower their women in numbers, lifting women out of poverty in large numbers."

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is committed to learning this model to accelerate the rights, welfare, and economic empowerment of its women, which aligns directly with the priorities of President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, she said.

"We can learn a lot from China on how we can scale up and accelerate actions in strengthening women across many sectors," the minister said, highlighting the need to bolster women's participation in the emerging blue, green, digital, and creative economies in Nigeria.

She also articulated specific expectations for new areas of cooperation, notably in the energy sector, by seeking pathways to ensure "women lead the energy transition, not just as beneficiaries as it once was but as business owners."

Sulaiman-Ibrahim said the core of her mission to Beijing is to secure a technical partnership that directly addresses the "systematic barriers" hindering Nigerian women, emphasizing that strengthening women's economic power is viewed as a prerequisite for Nigeria's national economic vision.

"We can share experiences, we can exchange, do a transfer of culture, transfer of skills, and technical know-how," the official added. ■