The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development says it has disbursed over N476 million to beneficiaries of its ongoing National Women Empowerment Fund (NAWEF) programme in eight pilot states.
The Minister, Sen. Aisha Alhassan, made this known on Thursday in Abuja at the mid-term review meeting on the 17th National Council on Women Affairs and Social Development.
Alhassan said that the NAWEF programme was established by a presidential proclamation as a micro-finance scheme to provide women, particularly those in the rural areas, access to soft loans for their business activities.
She said that implementation of NAWEF programme had commenced in eight pilot states.
According to her, so far, N1.6 billion has been disbursed to the Bank of Industry (BoI) for the beneficiaries.
“A total sum of four hundred and seventy-six million, seven hundred thousand naira (476, 700,000.00) has already been disbursed to the beneficiaries.
“They are from the eight pilot states of Adamawa, Yobe, Jigawa, Abia, Akwa-Ibom and Osun.
“The application from Borno and Nasarawa are still being processed due to some salient issues from the states. Other states will be covered in the next phase,” the minister said.
She said that her ministry was committed to sustaining harmonious working relationship in order to enhance better livelihood of women, girls and other vulnerable groups.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Ifeoma Anagbogu, said that the review meeting was held quarterly to assess the level of implementation of programmes in the ministry.
One of the participants, the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Jigawa, Hajiya Ladi Ibrahim, said that the meeting was instrumental to improvement of women in the state.
The mid-term review meeting is an annual event and a platform for stakeholders and gender experts to take stock of implementation of the resolution made at the last national council meeting.
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