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From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has commended Global Affairs Canada for the numerous people-oriented interventions in the state.
Mohammed made this known in Bauchi on Wednesday when he received a joint team of the United Nations Fund (UNICEF) and Global Affairs Canada on a courtesy visit to the state.
The governor revealed that one of the interventions includes youth entrepreneurship and women empowerment in Northern Nigeria, which he said was implemented in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in seven Local Government Areas in the state.
He listed the benefitting local government areas to include Bauchi, Dass, Toro, Ganjuwa, Warji, Katagum and Jama’are.
“These projects are directly supporting and targeting a population of over 16,000 people, mainly constituting women and youth on small-scale businesses and small entrepreneurs,” he said.
“The overreaching goal of the project is to enhance business performance in Agricultural value chains in order to improve the overall business environment and develop a culture of savings for women and youth in the state.”
He assured of the state government’s resolve towards meeting its obligations in all arrangements made with its partners.
In his remark, the Head, UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, Mr Tushar Rane, said that the government of Canada has released the sum of 3 million dollars to support the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bauchi State government.
Rane said the focus was on empowering women by giving them the abilities and capacities to participate in the delivery of health services and to enjoy the benefits of health services in the state.
“UNICEF is implementing this project through the MoU partnership and the government of Canada has advanced all the resources for this project to UNICEF,” he said.
“We are working through the Bauchi State Primary HealthCare Development Agency and other partners in the MoU and we are working in all the 323 wards of the state empowering women for their engagement in health service delivery.
Earlier, Mrs Djifa Ahado, Counsellor, Head of Development and Cooperation, Canadian High Commission in Nigeria, said that the collaboration with the State government had been one of the greatest collaborations ever.
“We hope to continue seeing that Collaboration. We hope to see that the government continues with the result of the different projects that we have here,” she said.
