774,000 women to get N10 billion

About 774,000 women, spread across 1,000 from each of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, will receive at a whopping N10 billion in form of grants to lift them from poverty.

This forms part of a micro-grant scheme to empower and lift the poor and vulnerable women, especially in the rural areas out of poverty.

President/Chief Executive, Dangote Industries Limited, said: “The Micro-grants programme is one component of the Economic Empowerment pillar of the Aliko Dangote Foundation. We will provide the 23,990 vulnerable women identified by your selection committee, with a one-off, unconditional N10,000.00 cash grant to boost their household income. This, we believe will help reduce their vulnerability and meet their livelihood needs.”
Dangote, who spoke at the roll-out of the scheme by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, in Sokoto, Wednesday, explained that “This N10 billion programme was launched in 2012, and is being systemically rolled out nationwide to reach 1,000 vulnerable women in each of our 774 LGA in Nigeria.”

He added that the programme also aims to complement the efforts of state governments in their economic empowerment and poverty reduction drive.

“Since inception, 334,500 women, representing over 40% of our target beneficiaries have benefitted from the programme (across Kano, Lagos, Jigawa, Kogi, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Niger and Nasarawa states). In the coming weeks we will be proceeding to Katsina and then Kebbi and Zamfara to conduct a similar program. By the time we are done with these next 4 States this year, we will be 55% done.

“To ensure inclusivity, the programme is implemented in partnership with the respective state governments. We are partnering Access Bank to open bank accounts for all the beneficiaries and issue them with customized debit cards that will be loaded with the NGN 10,000,” he added.

Also speaking, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, expressed appreciation to Dangote for the business mogul’s long-standing support and collaboration in the areas of Zakat, economic empowerment and in the fight against polio. He also applauded the decision by Dangote to increase the support to the Zakat Commission.