Oyo empowers women with cash, trade equipment

The Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs has donated cash, generators and a deep freezer to 198 individuals across the state as part of its poverty alleviation programme.

 Selected beneficiaries were given N20,000 each.

The Commissioner for Women Affairs, Community Development, Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Atinuke Osunkoya, said the programme was aimed at “waging war” against poverty among the masses.

 “It is a global reality that no society can develop without meaningful improvement in the area of job creation for women to complement the efforts of their husbands, by augmenting the family income and reducing the rate of juvenile delinquency,” Osunkoya said.

One of the beneficiaries, Sarat Rasaki, an 80-year-old woman from Oranyan, Ibadan, said she was a petty trader.

“I hope to use the money to trade and take care of my children. We have been surviving on the sale  of cold pap. I used to sell rice, beans and yam flour before but I had to stop because there was no money. With this money I can go back to my business,” she said,

Another beneficiary, a  sand supplier, Olaide Adegbola, said things had been very difficult for her family.

“I want to use the money to expand my business. I am very happy for the progress made on the empowerment programme,” the 46-year-old Oremeji-Agugu, Ibadan resident said.

40-year-old trader, Rashidat Olaniyan, was equally full of appreciation for the money she had received as she said she would like to go into cement business.

“This will help me in trading. I sell beverages.  My business is really going to move forward as a result of this,” another beneficiary, who went home with a generator, Mujidatu Adekunle, said.

The wife of the state governor, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, said women empowerment and poverty alleviation were core visions of the Governor Abiola Ajimobi administration.

She said the need to empower women became necessary considering the vital role they play in home building.

“I hope the beneficiaries will make good use of the opportunity given to them today. Our women should be lifted in the overall interest of the state,” she said.