Benue empowers 27,600 women with loans, grants

Benue State government is set to empower 27,600 women across the state with loans and grants.
This was disclosed, yesterday, by the Commissioner for Cooperatives and Rural Development, Mrs Joy Luga, in Makurdi.

According to her, the initiative, which is in collaboration with the state government and Bank of Agriculture (BOA), is targeted at empowering women in the state to be self-reliant.

Appreciating Governor Hyacinth Alia for making funds available for the initiative, she said the inclusion of women, especially those in the rural areas, was in line with the governor’s strategic development plan.

The commissioner further disclosed that the Ministry of Cooperatives and Rural Development had commenced training of women in skill acquisition in different areas like fashion designing, braiding, soap making, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), among others, after which soft loans and grants of between N100,000 and N200,000 would be given to the beneficiaries to start.

She said: “At our own level here in the Ministry of Cooperatives and Rural Development, we have mapped out modalities to empower women. We have trained women in cooperatives and associations to give them soft loans as start-up that we hope will lift them out of poverty.”