President Muhammadu Buhari has recently announced during his broadcast to the nation to mark his one year in office, that he has set aside N1.6 billion for women empowerment across the country.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the increasing role that our women are playing in revitalising the agricultural sector. Modern farming is still hard and heavy work and I salute our Nigerian women for sharing this burden”, he said.
The President also said “In this respect I am very pleased to announce that the government will shortly be launching the national women’s empowerment fund, which I have approved to provide N1.6 billion in micro-finance loans to women across the nation to assist in rehabilitating the economies of rural communities, particularly those impacted by the insurgency and conflict.”
Buhari expressed regret that for too long, Nigeria had been a society that neglected the poor and victimised the weak.
In the same vein, the President pointed that 500 Billion Naira has been appropriated in the 2016 budget for social intervention programmes in five key areas.
He said government would work closely with the World Bank and major international investors to ensure through best practices and due diligence that only the right partners were selected.
“Illegal mining remains a problem and we have set up a special security team to protect our assets. Special measures will be in place to protect miners in their work environment,” the president added.
