20,000 women benefit from women project in Niger
20,000 women benefit from women project in Niger
No fewer than 20,000 grassroots women have benefited from the Nigeria for Women Project, an initiative to support the livelihoods of women in three local government areas of Niger.
Alhaji Mohammed Bello, the Project Coordinator in Niger, announced this during a press conference in Minna on Tuesday, saying that the project was being implemented in Agaie, Wushishi and Gurara local government areas of the state.
The New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria for Women Project is a 100- million dollar loan facility from the World Bank to six states to support and improve livelihoods for women in targeted areas of the country.
The project has three components — building social capacity, livelihoods programme, innovations and partnership, project management monitoring and evaluation and learning.
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Bello, represented by Malam Dauda Sheharau, Procurement Officer for the Project, said that more than 20,000 women in the three local government areas had received N60,000 as grant to support their livelihoods.
He said that the target of the project was to support 54,000 women in Niger, but the state had exceeded the target as about 64,000 women had benefited from the project, adding that at the end of the project in May 2023, no fewer than 80,000 would women be reached.
In her remarks, Mrs Eyitemi Olley, Director Women Affairs in the Niger Ministry for Women Affairs and Social Development, said that the project had impacted on the lives of women at the grassroots.
“The project is to support and uplift the standard of women in rural areas, Niger was among the six states that was picked to champion the project in 2018 because of the effectiveness of the governor.
“The project has gone far by affecting women at the grassroots positively as about 20,000 women have benefited from N60,000 grant to help make them to be self-employed to help the society, themselves and elevate them from poverty,” she said.
Also, Mr Bankole Ebisemiju, the Team Leader for Media, said that the project was designed to elevate women to become self-sustained in the society by breaking cultural barriers and beliefs that affect women in developing themselves.
