FG women initiative project disburses N1.2B to rural women in Taraba

The Nigerian For Women Project (NFWP) said it has disbursed over N1.2B naira grant to 19,551 women across three local government areas of Taraba state to support and improve their livelihood.

The state project coordinator, Isaac Finya Yarafa disclosed this to journalists, during a media tour to the three targeted local government areas of Bali, Takum and Zing to witness the level of implementation of phase one of the project.

The NFWP is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria, supported by the World Bank and implemented by the federal ministry of women’s affairs. Phase one of the project is currently being implemented in six states of the federation which include; Abia, Akwa Ibom, Niger, Kebbi, Ogun and Taraba state.

The NFWP, since its inception, has recorded life-changing results in women across the selected states of the country, uplifting lives and improving their livelihoods. the project commenced in 2018 but the full implementation started in 2021

Yarafa said they have been able to reach out to the targeted 3600 Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) and an additional four WAGs with about 85,506 members in the WAGs across the three implementing local governments of the state.

He said they have also commenced payments of individual livelihood grants with 30,000 different business plans for women across the three implementing areas.

The state coordinator, who was represented by head of operations of the state project, Kunak Auta further said that each woman got a minimum of N59,000 while some got N60,000.00 with different kinds of training on how to manage the funds.

He said “They have been trained on financial education to enable them to manage their finances and also on business skills. We have also equipped them on how to develop business plans, manage emotions, gender and life skills with which to take care of themselves.

“We also trained them on Grievance Redress Management (GRM) to enable them to manage conflicts and their personal emotions when such arise”.

The state coordinator said that phase two of the project will commence immediately after phase one comes to an end in May 2023.

Also speaking to a journalist, commissioner of women affairs of the state, Hon. Bridget Twar said the state governor, his excellency, Darius Ishaku has already approved the payment of N450 million counterpart funding for the commencement of phase two of the project in the state.

She said the NWFP has impacted positively on the current beneficiaries in the state adding that there are plans to expand the project to the other 13 local government areas of the state.

Twar said the state has met all the conditions given by the world bank to qualify for phase two of the project assuring that the NFWP will outlive this current administration since mercenaries have been put in place for it to run for many years.

Chairman, of Zing local government area, Hon Andrew Luka Zanya said NFWP has alleviated the suffering of women in the area, as prior to the commencement of the project, a lot of the beneficiaries lived in abject poverty with so much debt.

Zanya said the project has enabled most of the women to learn how to save for rainy days, operate personal businesses and get loans internally within the groups and repay. This he said has helped improve the overall standard of living of the women including that of their husbands.

One of the beneficiaries in Bali local government area Mrs Grace Bala told journalists that she has improved her farming to a larger scale since she got the grant and this has enabled her to contribute immensely to the economy of her family.