Ogun government empowers over 20,000 women in the state

Ogun govt. discloses number of women empowered in the state.

The government of Ogun State has empowered over 20,000 women from across the state.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Abiola Gbadamosi, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abeokuta while intimating the World Bank Work Group led by Mrs Fatima Mohammed on activities of the ministry.

According to her, the government disbursed single-digit loan to the women, in a bid to improve their businesses and making them more financially stable.

Gbadamsi said the women affairs ministry has disbursed the sum of N200m yearly in the past six years for the scheme.

She also stated that the programme had benefited many women, helping them fulfill their family obligations with proceeds from the business.

Gbadamosi expressed high hopes that the state Government would increase the amount for the project in the 2018 fiscal year, in order to make available more funds to loan individuals, which would in turn translate to more beneficiaries in the scheme.

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The Permanent Seceretary also listed other areas the women had gained immensely to comprise vocational training for school drop-outs and young mothers to make them independent and employers of labour with a focus on fashion designing, barbing, hair-dressing, catering, decoration and event management among others.

The Permanent Secretary said a total of 182 people were trained in 2016, while 300 trainees divided into two batches were undergoing training for the 2017/2018 session.

She added that persons with disabilities were also being taken care of in the training and other empowerment programmes being organised by the government.

Mrs Gbadamosi said that the inter-connectivity of departments in the Ministry had greatly assisted at sustaining the programmes in the social development sector, adding that the rehabilitation department had also been working with some non-governmental organisations on rehabilitating the destitute while repatriation of non-indigene destitute were being done accordingly.

In her remarks, Mrs Mohammed said their visit was to engage government agencies, communities and groups benefitting from existing programmes on the progress and challenges recorded so as to proffer solution at strengthening future programmes.

She added that their findings would lead to a more robust working relationship between the group and the state government, especially in the social development sector.