The Federal Government has taken the Special Cash Grant for Rural Women Programme to Akure, Ondo State. This project will see that over 150,000 nationwide women receive grants of N20,000 each.
The news was announced by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, along with the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Arakunmi Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, at the Ondo State Government House on Thursday in Akure.
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The Minister said that this was part of the administration’s goal to lift 100 million people out of poverty.
“The Special Cash Grant for Rural Women Programme being flagged off today was introduced this year 2020 by the Ministry as part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s social inclusion and poverty reduction agenda, including the realisation of the national aspiration of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years. It is designed to provide a one-off grant to some of the poorest and vulnerable women in Nigeria,” Farouq said.
Governor Akeredolu said the grants would help facilitate female economic empowerment and tackle poverty worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is a welcome idea, especially as it provides an enabling platform for women empowerment, tackling poverty and resuscitating the economy after a long period of privation engendered by COVID-19 pandemic which continues to ravage the world.
“Ondo State government is highly delighted for the initiative of empowering rural women as a social inclusion and poverty alleviation agenda. This initiative is in consonance with the Ondo State government’s aspiration to lift a sizeable proportion of women out of poverty,” he said.
He also disclosed that women in Ondo had benefitted from welfare schemes of the government, including, Home Grown School Feeding Programme, which engaged 1490 women out of 1506 as Cooks in Ondo public primary schools; the Public Workfare empowered 2,930 women, who received a stipend of N7,500 monthly; Special Grant Transfers; and State Conditional Transfer, amongst others.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported in October that the Federal Government of Nigeria had inaugurated the Special Grant Project for Rural Women, which would see that over 700,000 women received grants of N20,000 each to make them financially empowered members of the society.
This month, the Federal Government commenced the disbursement of the N20,000 special grant to women in rural areas of Plateau state.
Working on the economic realities of Nigeria and the world, would the twenty thousand naira (#20000) lift self employed Nigerian out of poverty let alone a family of people. Government should introduce policy framework that would empower Nigerians not a mouth watering program like this.