The program which was flagged off by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq is targeted at 200 women from each of the 13 local government councils of the state.
Addressing the rural women in Ondo state, the Minister urged the beneficiaries to use the opportunity to increase their income, enhance their food security and generally contribute towards improving their living standard.
“It is my belief that with the support of Your Excellency, the target beneficiaries will be on their way out of poverty to prosperity and we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030 as envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari”.
Umar Farouq also explained that payments for the Conditional Cash Transfer in the state were made for September to December, 2019 after which the programme stopped due to the problems with the Payment Service Provider (PSP) and ICPC.
“This problem is being resolved and l assure the beneficiaries that the programme will resume in earnest”.
In his remark, the state Governor Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu SAN thanked the Federal government for its numerous Social investment Programs of which Ondo state benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer, Home Grown School Feeding, Special Grant Transfer, Public Workfare and Skills for Jobs under the Youth Employment and Social Support Operations
The Governor said that the Rural Women Cash Grant programme will provide an enabling platform for women empowerment, poverty alleviation and resuscitate the economy after many livelihoods were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The people of Ondo state appreciate the federal government for all these social investment initiatives that have transformed the lives of rural women in our state. Many of these women have transited from poverty to relative prosperity. They run their businesses now with the most probable potentials for expansion.
“The Ondo state government is highly delighted for the initiative of empowering rural women as a social inclusion and poverty reduction agendum. This initiative is in consonance with Ondo state government’s aspiration to lift a sizeable proportion of women out of poverty. It is in realization of this, that the government always keys into Social Investment Programmes in ensuring the provision of a reasonable means of livelihood for the poor and vulnerable especially women”.
Governor Akeredolu also promised to collaborate with agencies of the federal government to ensure remarkable improvement in the living conditions of the people of Ondo state especially rural women.