High interest loans for women deepen poverty — Minister

In a bid to further empower Nigerian women and keep poverty at bay, the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has appealed to stakeholders to provide life-impacting loans to women devoid of high interest rates.

The minister made the appeal at a press briefing on efforts by President Bola Tinubu to uplift the living standards of Nigerians, especially women, girls, and children, on Wednesday in Abuja.

She stated that except for loans provided by the federal government, which will have no interest of any kind and others that are women-friendly, the ministry does not want loans for Nigerian women.

She said, “Unless we empower women, narratives can never be changed. When you empower a woman, it takes care of the problem of out-of-school children, early/child marriages, and all that.

“We don’t want those loans for women anymore because it doesn’t favour them; it only makes them poorer in the end.”

The minister also decried the practice of marrying out young girls in exchange for small amounts of loans borrowed by parents.

She said, “If you see people that marry early and suffer vaginal fistula, most of them are poor people’s children; they are given early in marriage due to poverty. Money marriages are popular, so you can imagine what women and children are going through.

“This is where they borrow money with children; poor people who need small amounts are asked to give out their daughters or a baby to the lender of the money.”