Lagos State Government has approved financial empowerment of N50,000 each for 800 widows towards minimising their challenges.The state’s Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Cecilia Bolaji Dada, who announced this during a media briefing to commemorate 2024 International Widow’s Day, said the 800 beneficiaries were drawn from various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), faith-based groups, widows from Lagos State Social Register (LASSR), widows from political groups and vulnerable widows from the ministry’s register, who visited the ministry for assistance and source of livelihood.
“The ministry will continue to work with all stakeholders to achieve and accelerate the achievement of women, including vulnerable widows, by setting standards that will allow women to be independent and successful,” she said.
She, therefore, urged the beneficiaries to utilise the cash to support their businesses. Dada added that the challenges faced by widows were quite grievous and pathetic and could only be rectified through access to good healthcare system, qualitative education, a decent form of livelihood free from violence and abuse, and adequate justice for oppressed widows, especially those denied of land and property rights.
The commissioner, who stated that the ministry has a legal unit that assists widows through counselling and advocacy, noted that WAPA is sensitive to the needs of all vulnerable and indigent women of which the widows are not left out.
She said that the ministry also offers a life-skill economic empowerment programme of four weeks in different vocations being taken to locations across the state, including rural and riverine communities, to empower and encourage women to be independent and become less vulnerable towards abuses of all forms.
