Falomo Rotary Club supports police officers’ wives with N1m credit scheme

Rotary Club of Falomo in Lagos State has empowered no fewer than 20 women under the auspices of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) to boost their petty businesses.

The Club said the interest-free micro-credit scheme worth N1m is a yearly exercise aimed at enhancing the business initiatives of the beneficiaries.

Speaking during the women empowerment micro-credit scheme phase two to members of POWA at the Police Barracks in Falomo, Ikoyi-Lagos, the President of the Rotary Club of Falomo, Mr Tolulope Ogundipe, said the club decided to embark on the scheme to ensure that some of these police officers’ wives were economically empowered.

He said, “The saying that “police is our friend,” is correct, however, in the Rotary Club of Falomo, we have gone a step further to include the wives of policemen as our friends too. In line with this, last year, the management of the club met and decided to introduce a micro-credit lending scheme to support the businesses of police officers’ wives.

“We approached the Falomo Police Barracks chapter of POWA and we had the first scheme rolled out in 2021 with 10 beneficiaries getting N50, 000 each. Following the success of the pioneer scheme, we decided that we would be increasing the fund each year. So, this year under my leadership, we have increased the portfolio to N1m with 20 beneficiaries. The beneficiaries got N50, 000 each and it has no interest.”

Ogundipe noted that as a club, “We are fulfilling one of the seven areas of Rotary Club, which is economic empowerment. Rotary International has seven areas of focus and one of them is economic empowerment.

“Coincidentally, the month of October is marked as a month of economic empowerment and part of our way of celebrating that month is to empower these women. Phase one that we did last year revealed to us that we have Nigerians who are still sincere, who understand that money lent to them should be returned at due time.”

He recalled that all the beneficiaries in 2021 returned their monies without having to be chased, adding that their partner, the Nigeria Police Force Micro-Finance Bank, could testify to the compliance story.

He added, “By 2023, we hope to increase the liquidity for this project and more women will be considered for this empowerment. We believe, as a club, that this empowerment will help improve the livelihood and support the women and their families.”

Also, the Service Project Director of Rotary Club Falomo, Mr Ibrahim Sule, said, “The driving force behind the project is to empower the women so that they can have start-up funds for their businesses. We expect them to use the money wisely to the benefit of their families.”

In the process of selecting the beneficiaries, the Head of Marketing at NPF Microfinance Bank, Fatima Olajumoke, said, “We picked them based on those who have solid business ideas. We also looked at their net worth to ensure that they are the ones that need it, not collecting for someone else. We also focused on the junior police officers’ wives.

“We screened them alongside others that showed interest in the scheme. We ensured that those listed as beneficiaries were real people, not fake ones. The bulk of the beneficiaries is into petty trading.”

Welfare Police of the Barracks, Mrs Bello Folashade, commended Rotary Club for the financial empowerment, promising that the money would be remitted promptly as agreed.
Similarly, the POWA market leader of the barracks, Nkechi Ezeofor, said the empowerment would enhance the growth of their businesses.