Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has urged beneficiaries of N260 million empowerment initiative to use the government support funds to improve their small scale businesses and enterprise.
Governor Yusuf specifically warned the female beneficiaries drawn across the 44 local government not to give out the start-up capital to their husband for any reason.
Besides, he mandated the women to notify their husband that government has directed them not to use the seed fund for any purpose other than to use for multiplication of their enterprises.
The Governor gave the stern warning on Tuesday at the Coronation hall, Government house, during the flag off of another batch of disbursement of empowerment fund initiated by his administration targeted at enhancing micro economic and poverty reduction.
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The government gives out N50, 000 each to 5,200 women drawn from 44 local government areas, covering 484 political wards of the state, totally the sum of N260 million monthly.
According to him, ” The money is used to improve your businesses and economy. Don’t give it to your husbands or use for any ceremony. In case your husbands are asking you to bring it, tell them that the Governor says you should not surrender it.
” And don’t lend the money out to any body. As a small scale business hold, you don’t lend out your capital because it kills business. In case they kept mounting pressure on you ask them to come to government house for clarification”. Governor Yusuf insisted.
“During our campaign, we promised to commit ourselves to empowering a significant number of women, so as to enable them to become self-reliant, take care of their families, and contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic well-being of the entire society.
“Today, as we witness the fulfillment of that promise we give all gratitude to Allah for making it possible. Let me say here that since the launching of this intervention program in May 2024 this administration has improved the livelihoods of over 41,600 vulnerable women.
“Through this laudable program we aim to provide a seed of funds for our indigent women to engage in projects and learn skills to become artisans and self-reliant. We have been committed to the distribution of monthly working capital of 50,000 Naira per head to 5,200 women”. He said.
Yusuf however worried over the 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index report where Kano State was ranked 63 per cent above the national average with about 10.5 million people being multi dimensionally poor.
He said the data shows that government must implement deliberate policies to lift millions of citizens out of poverty adding that his administration had already outline critical support policies to reduce poverty in Kano.
“We understand very well that to tackle gross poverty, we need to give people more than just capital. Our administration aims to empower people with the knowledge and skills to make the right decisions to improve their fortunes.
“Therefore, we also tried to roll out several programs to improve access to quality education guarantee food security fast-track rural development and urban renewal and create employment opportunities for our youth and women.
” To mitigate the impact of catastrophic health care spending on low-income earners, our administration has recently provided universal health coverage to over 300,000 vulnerable people identified in the social register. Furthermore, thousands of children have been taken up the citrix and enrolled in public schools.
“At this juncture, I want to call on all the women beneficiaries of this empowerment to make sure that they utilize the capital of 50,000 given to each one of you responsibly. I want to re-notify you that the capital given to you is not a loan. It is government’s gesture to giving free without any refund or any tax attached to it”. Governor Yusuf emphasized.
