About 120 Queens converged at the Palace of Ooni of Ife, in lle Ife, Osun State, to discuss the impact of Royal Queens on national development. The maiden conference was organised by Olori Ronke Ademiluyi Ogunwusi and Olori Janet and Afolabi under the Queen Moremi Ajasoro initiative and Olori Janet Afolabi Foundation.
The conference titled ” The Impact of Oloris (Royal Queens) in National Development” examined how impactful the Queens have been in their Kingdoms.
In her welcome speech, Olori Ronke, who is the founder of Africa Fashion Week London and Nigeria Week and CEO of an Adire Textile hub, said, “Today, for the first time in history, we are coming together to see how we can all work together on different projects to impact our communities.”
She invited the Queens to take advantage of the Adire training, which is free, and she has trained over 500 women and youths.
In her keynote speech, Olori Janet Afolabi said there are so many challenges in our communities today. “Our husbands, the Kings, are at the forefront of solving those problems. But we should also rise up and support them.”
She encouraged the Queens to identify the problems in the domains, do a problem analysis and then strategize on how to solve them. Olori Janet said, “If Queens make an impact with their projects in the communities, such impacts can be replicated at the national level.”
Encouraging the Queens to start small, Olori Janet said nothing is too small for them to start with. She said, “I started with 10 students today; I have over 150 students. I also empowered some set of the Traders with 20,000 Naira each and ask them to pay back 5000 Naira monthly so we can give the money to other traders; none of them defaulted. They all paid the loan back and on time too”.This means that you do not need a huge sum of money to impact people.
Special Guest of Honour, the wife of Osun State Governor, Erelu Ngozi Adeleke, earlier in her goodwill message, commended Olori Ronke and Olori Janet for organising the event. She committed to supporting and empowering women to develop Osun state. “I am ready to collaborate with you whenever you need me,” she said