The Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) will next week begin disbursement of$15 million project fund to benefiting members of the Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) in the three pilot local government areas in Niger state.
NFWP National Project Coordinator, Mrs Ruth Peter Mshelia, made this known, Tuesday in Abuja, at a two-day media workshop for a select section of the media on new trends in women development in Nigeria.
The coordinator, who said the media workshop was an aspect of the NFWP’s project development objectives, which is a five-year project of the federal government with support from the World Bank, explained that NFWP was being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and six state governments.
Listing the states as Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Kebbi, Niger, Ogun, and Taraba, Mshelia noted the states had subsidiary loan agreement with the federal government to avoid abuse of project implementation; just as the WAGs comprising over 300,000 women had raised not less than N1 billion and sustained various rural businesses across the six geo-political zones.
Blueprint reports that 53,000 beneficiaries in each state were eligible to receive maximum of N60, 000 from the $15 million overall project fund based on business individual plans.
The coordinator explained that all women, 18 years and above, involved in any form of legal and locally accepted business activity were eligible to belong to a WAG made up of between 15 and 25 who have common areas of interest within a locality.
She further stated that WAG members were also expected to complete mandatory trainings in saving and investment as well provide feasible business plans in their areas of interest individually and as a group in order to benefit from the grant.
According to her, “The project is supporting Nigerian government’s efforts of ensuring gender equality and improving women’s economic well being at individual, household level and the community at large.
