27,600 Benue women to receive grants, loans for business growth

In an interview with newsmen on Monday in Makurdi, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Joy Luga, said that the beneficiaries would be selected from across the 23 local government areas of the state.

Luga said that Gov. Hyacinth Alia of Benue had been making an effort to ensure that women in the state received all the support to excel. She said that the women would receive training after which they would be grouped under various cooperative societies in order to access loans.

The commissioner said further that the state government intends to include rural women in the programme in line with the governor's strategic development plan and message of the 2024 International Women’s Day.

She further explained that the ministry had commenced training women in various skills and would offer soft loans to them at the end of the training. Luga said that the vocations in which the beneficiaries would be trained include fashion/hair designing, beads making, beauty and cosmetics, soap, detergent making, ICT training etc.

The commissioner said that the loans ranging from ₦100,000 to ₦200,000 would be disbursed to the trainees.

“At our own level here in the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperatives and Rural Development, we have mapped out modalities on how to empower the women in the society.

“We have trained women in cooperatives and associations to give them soft loans that will lift them from the poor level they are, to at least, a higher level that they can stand and say they are living better than they were before.

“We have trained them in various areas and we are about to give money to them any moment from now.

“The Executive Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, is not relenting, and has ensured that money is available to be disbursed to the women.”

The commissioner further stated that the training and empowerment schemes were not only for women but also for men interested in advancing their socio-economic status. She, however, said that the training and empowerment for men would be done at the appropriate time.

“We are not leaving men out because you cannot talk of a woman without a man. We are their backbone”.

"After disbursing these monies to the women, we are training men in the whole state and we will make sure to reach out to them so that when they are celebrating their men’s day, they will have the ministry of rural development at heart and appreciate us,” Luga added.

She also said the essence of training the women was to ensure that they make proper use of the loans, so as to become more useful to their families and immediate communities.

“Very soon, we will be having a lot of programmes in the area of cooperatives for the girl child in the rural areas,” the commissioner said.

She further said there would be some training to teach the girl children how to care for themselves.

“I wouldn’t want to go deep into this because it is the specialty of the Ministry of Women Affairs.

“We are going to work with the Ministry of Women Affairs to help the women.

We have programmes that are helpful to them in the area of sanitation.

“We have programmes that can reach out to them, that will be through sensitisation and mobilisation through the communities,” she stated.