From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
About 9,000 women entrepreneurs in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have benefited from special support from an international intervention organisation to boost livelihood and family survival in Borno State.
Deputy Director of Programme Operations of Save the Children, an international intervention organisation, Mr Chachu Tadicha disclosed in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, during the presentation of the support to the beneficiaries to mark the 2023 World Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Day.
Chachu said the support was necessitated by the shrinking of the donor funding on food assistance which they have been providing to several households in the emergency situation due to the over a decade of violence and humanitarian challenge in the northeast.
“Save the Children has been given food assistance in Borno since 2016 and we have been empowering people through livelihood support. Now, with the shrinking of donor funding in food assistance, we have to empower these women to achieve food security for their families;” he explained.
Represented by the organisation’s Food Security and Livelihood Sector Lead, Nwari Ihechi, the official said 5,792 women entrepreneurs were supported under the MSMEs livelihood project while 3,000 other women affected by insurgency benefited from another project that ended last year.
“Our overall goal is food security and sufficiency, and household resilience to ensure that every child is protected; to make sure every child survives and learns,” he explained.
More than three million people were displaced from their homes and livelihood in the over a decade of insurgency in the northeast according to a report by the UN humanitarian office in Nigeria. The report also indicated that women and children are mostly affected.