From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Hajia Sadiya Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development
The Federal Government has said that no fewer than 3000 indigent women would benefit from Government’s Cash Grant for Rural Women Project”, in Kogi State.
The Minister, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouk, disclosed this at the Flag-Off of the ”Federal Government Cash Grant for Rural Women Project” at Government House Lokoja yesterday.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Bashir Nura Alkali, the Minister said that a cash grant of N20,000.00 would be disbursed to about 125,000 poor women across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
”Our target in Kogi State is to disburse the grant to about 3,000 beneficiaries across all Local Government Councils.
”The grant is expected to increase income and productive assets of target beneficiaries.
”It is our hope that the beneficiaries of this programme will make good use of the grant to generally contribute towards improving their living standard by using the fund as seed to boost their trade and business for greater income”, Farouk said.
She, therefore enjoined the beneficiaries to judiciously utilise the fund and not to see it as their own share of the so-called National Cake.
The minister stressed that the Grant for Rural Women programme was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of President Buhari’s Administration, to give a lifting hand to some of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in the country.
She added: ”It is consistent with the President’s now national vision 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 most vulnerable women in rural and peri-urban areas of the country”.
She explained that President Muhammadu Buhari, initiated the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in 2016, as a strategy for reducing poverty and enhancing social inclusion.
According to her, the NSIP is adjudged as the largest social protection programme in Africa with over $1billion earmarked annually to cause positive changes in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable in the country.
”Since its introduction in 2016, the social investment programme has impacted positively on the lives of the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria as millions of households have benefitted from NSIP interventions in the last 5 years.
”This included payment of a monthly Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of N5,000.00 to 1 million indigent Nigerians to protect them against economic shocks and gradually elevate them out of poverty.
”Also, over a million micro and small business owners accessed loans to boost productivity, increase income and reduce poverty under the Government Enterprise Enhancement Programme (GEEP).
”The N-Power programme provided temporary income-generating opportunities for 500,000 unemployed youths in the first instance while over eight million primary 1-3 pupils in public schools currently are receiving one meal per day under the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.
”It is in view of this, that President Buhari graciously approved the expansion of the programme to touch more lives and lift more Nigerians above the poverty breadline.
She restated the commitment of the Federal Government to ensure that the right beneficiaries were targeted, and to enhance impact on target beneficiaries.
She added that the Ministry was also working tirelessly to address some of the socioeconomic problems that are bedevilling all parts of the country by strengthening the humanitarian-development-peace nexus as well as other poverty reduction programmes.
”We believe with the complementary effort of the State Government, the target beneficiaries will all be adequately covered within the next few days.
”’I am optimistic that with the support and cooperation of Your Excellency and other stakeholders present here, we will remain on track to improving the lot of the women
