FG GIVES OVER 600 ABIA WOMEN #60,000 GRANT FOR BIZ

REPORTER: LAWRENCE NWOKEDI

Over six hundred women drawn from Ohafia, Isialangwa North and Obingwa Local Government Areas of Abia State have benefitted from the Nigeria for Women Project Individual Livelihood Grant disbursement.

The event, which took place in Umuahia, is a Federal Government project implemented through the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development with support from the World Bank.

Speaking during the commencement of the programme in Umuahia, the State Deputy Governor, Mr. Ude Okochukwu, who represented Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, said leadership in the state was determined and committed to improving the livelihood of women.

He noted that the state government had embraced the Nigeria for Women Project by the release and payment of the first and second tranches of counterpart funds for the project.

The Deputy Governor pointed out that their administration would continue to embrace and key into any project or policy from the Federal Government and development partners aimed at improving the welfare of women.

He urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the grant.

In her message, the Minister of Women Affairs Dame Palline represented by a Director in the ministry, Mr. Joseph Olusa, said the project was aimed at overcoming the main institutional and market failure limiting women’s socio-economic outcome and access to market.

She stated that as of 9th of March 2022, the project had a total of 11,305 (eleven thousand three hundred and five) women affinity groups nationwide.

The National Project Coordinator Nigeria for Women Project, Mrs. Ruth Mshella, said that the project was initiated by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with World Bank to profer solutions to financial challenges facing rural women as well as providing the necessary capacity to help them for better livelihood.

Some of the beneficiaries, in an interview, thanked Federal Government for initiating the project, stating that it would impact greatly in their lives

Each of the beneficiaries received #60,000.00 (sixty thousand naira) to either start a new business or expand an existing one.