A total of 5000 rural women from the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have gotten grants of N20, 000 each.
Flagging off the exercise, Ramatu Aliyu, FCT Minister of State, explained that the measure was to win the war against acute poverty, especially amongst rural women in the country.
Aliyu commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his decision to initiate the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) as a strategy for enhancing social inclusion and a demonstration of his efforts to bring succour and hope to the poorest of the poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria.
The Minister disclosed that the symbolic disbursement was to signal the start of the grant for rural women empowerment project that would pay a one-off grant of N20,000 each to 5,000 beneficiaries in the six Area Councils of the FCT.
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She added that the exercise would continue in line with the plans already put in place by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHDSD) until all the beneficiaries selected via a participatory community-centric selection process, had received the grants.
“You will agree with me that the launch of this programme is a bold statement that the government is reiterating the readiness to do all that is necessary to join the comity of nations to fight the global economic downturn and to put in place the needed shocks to withstand any future eventualities. The development thrust being to fuel economic recovery from the bottom up,” Aliyu stated.
While commending the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for the zeal and determination towards the realisation of this people-oriented programme, Aliyu affirmed that the FCT administration was convinced of its role to provide the right environment for this to happen within the FCT.
Earlier in her remarks, Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said the grant was expected to increase income and productive assets of target beneficiaries.
The Minister also noted that NSIP was one of the largest social protection programmes in Africa with over $1billion earmarked annually to cause positive change in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable in the country, stressing that since its introduction in 2016, the prorgramme has impacted positively on the lives of the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria.
