Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press. You are warmly welcome to this Press briefing.
We
have called you here today to intimate you on the progress of the
implementation of the Federal Government Social Protection Programmes
especially the two programmes that are being implemented by my Ministry
that is, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in
conjunction with the Bank of Industry (BOI) under the supervision of
the Office of His
Excellency the Vice President while monitoring and
evaluation of all the Federal Government Social Investment Programmes
will be done by the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
The Social Protection or Investment Programme of the Federal Government has five pillars namely:
1. The Conditional Cash Transfer Programme known as the CCT
2. The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
3. The STEM which is a Bursary programme for Students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
4.
Job Creation Programme known as N-Power under which unemployed
graduates will be trained as volunteer corps teachers where 500,000
unemployed graduates will be trained as teachers and deployed to their
own communities to teach while unemployed non-graduates will be trained
and empowered with different skills as Artisans focusing on creative
knowledge like graphic designs and animation, technology, for example
software development and hardware maintenance.
5. Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme known as GEEP.
The
GEEP Programme is one of the five Federal Government Social Investment
Programmes targeted at providing Micro Finance as loans to young men and
women from all states of the Federation on very liberal conditions.
It
is instructive to announce that for the first time in Nigeria, loans of
this magnitude will be given to Nigerians with no collateral and
interest. This is because the Government recognizes the difficulty
involved in securing business loans from commercial banks.
Measures
for monitoring and evaluation of disbursement, usage and recovery have
been put in place. This is necessary to ensure that beneficiaries are
made to repay the loans so that fresh applicants can also benefit from
the revolving scheme.
The Administering Bank for disbursements
and recovery, the Bank of Industry, has concluded all necessary
arrangements for the disbursements of the funds to successful
beneficiaries. By next week, beneficiaries will be free to access the
funds through their individual accounts.
The repayment
schedules are much easier and less stringent than those of conventional
banking loans. We are sure the country will witness increased economic
activities nationwide, with the desired multiplier effects and
subsequent boost in the economy.
Distinguished Members of the
Press, you may recall that during the Democracy Day Celebration on May
29th this year, Mr. President in his speech made a proclamation of the
sum of N1.6 Billion Naira for Women Empowerment. I am pleased to tell
you here today that the said amount has already been released to the
Bank of Industry for disbursement to Beneficiaries in eight pilot states
for start alongside the roll out fund for the GEEP. The Eight Pilot
states are Adamawa, Borno and Yobe from North East, Nasarawa From the
North Central, Jigawa from the North West, Edo from the South South,
Osun from the South West and Imo from the South East.
The NAWEF
Programme targets 10,000 women Beneficiaries in each of the pilot
states. An estimated N200 Million Naira is to be disbursed in each of
the eight states.
The conditions for the loans both under the
GEEP and NAWEF are the same. Under both Programmes, each beneficiary
will receive between N10,000 to N100,000 depending on the type of
business or trade, with no interest, no collateral and repayable in six
months. Beneficiaries have to form functional cooperative groups or
local trade associations or other community based groups of at least ten
(10) persons per group.
My Ministry undertook the onerous task
of Nationwide stakeholder engagements and meetings with a view to
sensitizing Nigerians especially women at the grassroot level on the
modalities for access and utilization of the funds.
Also, my
Ministry is collaborating with Development Partners and Donor Agencies
like UN Women, JICA etc to train the beneficiaries on how to manage the
funds to better their businesses or trade so that the Programme
succeeds.
Our target is to touch the lives of small business owners and traders whose capital bases are not more than N100,000.
Ladies
and Gentlemen of the Press. This gesture by Mr. President to boost the
Nigerian economy by uplifting economic status of the lowest Nigerian
Woman could not have come at a better time than during this period of
Economic Recession.
The least Nigerians can do for this kind
gesture of Mr. President is to be more patient as other good things are
coming, pray for the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and
continued peace in the country.
I thank you all for listening.
Happy Independence Day Celebration in advance.
God bless Nigeria.
God bless Nigeria.
Long Live Mr. President!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA
Senator Aisha J. Alhassan (Mrs.)
Minister, Women Affairs and Social Development.
Minister, Women Affairs and Social Development.
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