GEEP: FG DISBURSES FUNDS TO OVER 4,000 POOR PERSONS IN IMO

REPORTER: CHINAZO ILECHUKWU

More than four thousand vulnerable persons in Imo State are to benefit from the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) 2.0 executed by the Federal government.

At the formal commencement of the programme in Owerri, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk, said the programme was part of measures by President Muhammadu Buhari to fight poverty and its devastating effects.

The Minister, who handed over cheques to some of the beneficiaries, said the beneficiaries were carefully selected from the 27 local government areas of Imo State.

According to the Minister, those involved in viable informal productive activities with limited financial requirements that had never had access to loans from the formal financial sector were targeted under the programme.

Hajiya Umar-Farouk explained that three unique products, which are Tradermoni loan of fifty thousand naira, meant for youths between the ages of eighteen and forty; Marketmoni loan of fifty thousand naira meant for widows, divorcees and vulnerable women; and Farmermoni loan, which ranges between fifty thousand and three hundred thousand naira meant to encourage peasant farmers in the communities

The Minister stated that bank accounts had been opened for the beneficiaries and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Cards handed over to them and that they were being enumerated to ensure financial inclusivity of the poor in a sustainable manner.

The Imo State Governor, Chief Hope Uzodimma, commended the Federal Government for the gesture, noting that the programme was in line with the efforts of his administration to tackle poverty in the state.

He pleaded for inclusion of more Imo indigenes in the various social investment programmes of the federal government while giving assurance that his administration would expand the number of those currently benefiting from the state interventions.  

Some of the beneficiaries, who were elated by the gesture, thanked the government for remembering the less privileged and promised to utilize the opportunity to improve their lots.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU