By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
For the second time in one month, the Umar Namadi-led administration in Jigawa state, on Saturday, took its rural development Initiative to the hilly Gwari community in Dutse local government, when it flagged off the rural women empowerment programme.
Under the programme, initiated and being overseen by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, about 100 women in the community and another 100 women from the neighbouring community were provided with a grant of up to the sum of N50,000 each to boost their small scale businesses in their communities.
The launch of the programme in the village was part of the commencement of the state wide distribution of N50,000 empowerment package for 12,600 women across the 27 local government areas in the state
Gwari had its first taste of state government experience in over 300 years existence in rural development on July 31, when Governor Namadi commissioned a N300 million water project that ended more than two centuries of water scarcity in the community.
The peoples’ plight came to the fore following a media report on the agony of the community that lacks access to drinking water and other social amenities.
Speaking at the launch of the empowerment programme, Namadi said, the programme was part of the commitment of his government to empower people of different categories for tackling poverty, promoting jobs, and wealth creation in the state.
Quoting from reports of a recent survey on population, the governor said, 51 percent of the state population of 7.5 million are female, and also that women appear to be more economically backward in the state and therefore, it is very critical and indispensable to empower women to achieve poverty reduction in the state.
“Today we are launching another round of women empowerment in Jigawa state, in which we targeted 12,600 women with a grant of N50,000 each to improve or start their jobs of choice.
“In line with most of the objectives of this Initiative, it is to expand access to livelihood spot, increase social transfer and grant to the poor and vulnerable households, while providing opportunities for socio economic emppowerment of women, as this also helps to enhance households consumption and improve the wellbeing of all the family members.
“Besides, this, we also signed an MoU with the World Bank for women empowerment, which we now increase our counter funds from N50 Million to N500 million, we also injected N4 billion into the Bank of Industry for empowering our people with special and simple packages for women in addition to different packages we give them in the past.
“We are optimistic that, besides poverty eradication, women empowerment will help in reducing domestic crisis, promote peace and love in the family which will enhance children’s moral upbringing, public productivity growth and development in the state.”
According to him, “Recent data on the population of Jigawa state indicated that 51% of the 7.5 million people in the state are female, meaning that there are more female than men in the state.
“Other statistics also suggested that women are also prone to socio-economic vulnerabilities and bear more of the brunt of poverty than the men, especially considering that the educational attainments of women are relatively lower than that of the men. This has made it imperative to continuously pursue programmes, target at improving the socio-economic emppowerment of the women.’
The state Commissioner for Women Affairs Hajiya Hadiza Abdulwahab said, a total of two hundred women were selected from Gwari Village and other nearby Communities, while the selection was made based on priority needs across the rural communities in the 27 local government areas of the state.
Some of the beneficiaries who received their alerts during the launch have expressed their gratitude to the governor for his compassion for women empowerment and promised to utilize the grant properly to achieve the desired goals.
Gwari community has for more than 300 years without potable drinking water. This is in spite of it’s proximity to Dutse,.the state capital, just about seven kilometers away from the Government House, the seat of government.
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