FG empowers 3,122 vulnerable persons in Ebonyi with N20,000 each

The Federal Government on Thursday empowered 3,122 vulnerable persons in Ebonyi with N20,000 each through its Grant for Vulnerable Groups (GVG) programme.

Hajiya Sadiya Farouq,  the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, disclosed this  during the programme in Abakaliki.

Farouq represented by Mr Peter Nwakpa, Director Planning, Research and Statistics in the ministry, said that the programme  was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of the  Buhari-led administration for  the poor.

“The agenda is consistent with his compassionate and deliberate national agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

“Our target in Ebonyi is to disburse the grant across the 13 local government areas of the state as 70 per cent of the beneficiaries must be women and 30 per cent youths.

“The president further directed that at least 15 per cent of the beneficiaries must be citizens with special needs including persons with disabilities and senior citizens,” she said.

The minister noted that the ministry would also implement the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP 2.0) at the event.

“The two programmes are designed to lift 100 million people out of poverty by 2030 and are being implemented in partnership with state governments.

“The GEEP programme is designed for the vulnerable and low-income Nigerians who are involved in commercial activities and have capacity to access loans from banks.

“It is meant to give priority to the most vulnerable in the society such as: widows, youths, the disabled, the displaced among others.

“The programme is captured in three signature schemes namely: TraderMoni loan of N50,000 targeted toward the under privileged  between 18 years and 40 years of age.

“MarketMoni is an empowerment programme designed for the under privileged women specifically female heads of households such as widows, divorcees among others.

“FarmerMoni loan scheme is designed to provide agricultural inputs worth N300,000 to rural farmers,” she said.

Mrs Ann Aligwe,  the state Commissioner for Human Capital Development,  thanked the FG for both programmes among other human uplifting initiatives of the present administration.

She said, “23,000 youths from the state are presently benefiting from the N-Power programme while 43,000 citizens are benefiting from the conditional cash transfer.

“Also, 64,000 pupils from the state are benefiting from the home-grown school feeding programme and we seek more of these interventions from the Federal Government.

“Gov. David Umahi is replicating these strides by recently empowering citizens of the state with various sums of money among other empowerment packages,” she said.

Mr Basil Okeh, one of the beneficiaries  thanked the Federal Government  for the initiative and pledged to judiciously utilise the fund. (NAN)