Eradicating Poverty Among Nigerian Women Through Rural Cash Grant
The ₦20,000 rural cash grant initiative was introduced by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in 2020 as part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s social inclusion and poverty alleviation agenda. The programme targeted 150,000 rural and peri-urban women in all 774 local government areas of the 36 states and the FCT. It is a community-based initiative.
The goal is to see to increased income, enhanced food security, more productivity and financial inclusion.
The programme was launched in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria as a way of encouraging women in the state who were in one way or the other affected by the insurgency in the region. The aim is to see every beneficiary in Borno state independent and live a sustainable life, especially those who lost their husbands to insurgency.
The rural women grant was also designed to support gender equality, address poverty amongst women and also reduce the menace of unemployment in the society by ensuring that all beneficiaries put the grant awarded to them to good use.
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In the North western part of Nigeria where more than 28,000 women were awarded the grant, most of the beneficiaries, if not all, have started one business or the other and are already succeeding in entrepreneurship.
The rural women grant of the Ministry seems to be the trendiest grant awarded to women in the history of the country.
The grant was awarded to women who truly deserve it; women finding it difficult to survive on less than a Dollar per day. The grant was given to women who do not have anybody to cater for their needs, especially widows whose husbands died, leaving them to cater for so many children.
The cash grant has so far aided a lot of women in North West Nigeria in upgrading their business. This was possible through putting the money awarded to them to right channel of businesses that suite their environment.
People wonder how ₦20,000 that can be spent in less than an hour will be able to aid someone start a business, the truth is the grant was awarded to people who truly need it; people who will help the country in addressing the challenges of unemployment and poverty. Hadiza Ibrahim for example who is a beneficiary from Nasarawa local government area of Kano State is into cheese making business, she used her grant to upgrade the number of cheeses she’s making a day, which is now earning her more profit.
