Kebbi govt disburses N105 million to 200 women groups

The Kebbi State Government has disbursed N105 million to empower 200 women groups in the 21 local government areas of the state.

The wife of the state governor, Zainab Bagudu, who flagged off the Multi-Purposed Scheme programme for the women in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital on Monday said eight local government would benefit from the scheme from the onset.

“Women groups from eight local governments will start benefiting in the first phase of the disbursement of cash and empowerment materials.

“The areas are, Augie, Arewa, Bagudo, Birnin Kebbi, Bunza, Sakaba, Danko/ Wasagu and Ngaski,’’ she said.

Mrs Bagudu said the initiative was geared towards eradicating poverty amongst the women folk through financial loan assistance to support their businesses.

According to her, the loan is interest free and aimed at supporting families to cater for the education of their children and uplift their living standard.

“This is in fulfilment of our earlier pledge to assist women society groups to improve their living standard, as our state government is gender equity government,’’ she said.

Also speaking, the state governor, Atiku Bagudu, commended the effort of his wife and all those who collaborated with her to make the event successful.

He said the event was important because it represented the first initiated programme in collaboration with companies to empower women in the state.

“We hope that when a woman is empowered, the poverty level in the society will drastically reduce,’’ he said.

Earlier, Hajara Yusuf, the chairperson of the scheme, said N30 million was earmarked for cash disbursement while N75 million was for the purchase of empowerment materials for the women groups.

“Each of the benefiting women in the group will collect N15, 000 cash as well as empowerment materials to start up their businesses,’’ she said.

The empowerment materials includes, plastic chairs, eating plates and coolers for food preservation, among others.

(NAN)