Follow Us on Google
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and wife of the Anambra State Governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo, have jointly empowered 1,000 women in Anambra State, with cash amounts of N50, 000 each to support their businesses.
The empowerment programme, a project of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) in collaboration with the Tony Elumelu Foundation took place at the newly commissioned Anambra Light House in Awka, yesterday.
Five hundred women were slated for the empowerment programme but to complement the noble gesture of the First Lady, Mrs Soludo mapped out funds for an additional 500 women in the state totalling 1,000 in all.
Speaking during the disbursement, Mrs. Soludo, who read Mrs. Tinubu’s address recalled that the First Lady had on Tuesday inaugurated the empowerment programme for 18,500 women nationwide at Minna, Niger State.
She said the programme was targeted at women traders and small-scale business owners, with each beneficiary receiving a N50,000 grant.
According to her, women empowerment is a catalyst for household, community and national progress.
“This seed fund is to support the entrepreneurial spirit of women, strengthen and recapitalise their businesses and small scale enterprises.
Other News
“When you empower a woman, you empower a household, a community and the future of the nation at large.
She thanked Mrs Tinubu for being diligent in helping and empowering indigent women around the country.
“The money you are getting today is not for you to make a new pot of soup but for you to put it in your businesses, and my belief is that God will bless it and it will cause your businesses to blossom.”
She shared the story of an indigent woman she had earlier empowered to sell pap, and she expanded and added bean cake to her business and today she is effortlessly feeding her family.
The Governor’s wife also gave additional N7,000 each to all the beneficiaries for their transport, saying the additional money would aid them to get home without touching the seed fund, which is meant to support their businesses.
She disclosed that the beneficiaries were picked from various communities in the state through the instrumentality of the town union leaders and women coordinators, noting that the targets were mainly indigent women.
Mrs Ngozi Okoye from the Ojoto community among other recipients expressed their immense gratitude to the government for alleviating their burdens.
