The First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, Thursday, through her foundation, the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) Economic Empowerment Programme, flagged-off the recapitalisation grants for 1,000 women petty traders in FCT Abuja. She said that N1,850,000,000 would be disbursed to 37,000 women petty traders across the country. Each beneficiary will receive N50,000 each to recapitalise and grow their businesses.

The First Lady, represented by the Mandate Secretary Women Affairs Secretariat and the FCT State Coordinator of the RHI, Mrs. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, added that the event would take place simultaneously across the 36 states of the federation including the FCT. She said the RHI recognised the challenges faced by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially the petty traders, who form the backbone of the local economies.

Meanwhile, according to the Mandate Secretary Women Affairs Secretariat and the FCT State Coordinator of the RHI, Mrs. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi: “The grants provided today is to assist our women petty traders in overcoming some of their business challenges, expand their businesses create more jobs and contribute more robustly to our economy.

She stressed that economic empowerment constituted the core objective of the RHI, which recognised has continued to support the economic reforms of the present administration of President Bola Tinubu.“We recognise that empowering women economically is not just a moral imperative but a strategic one. When women thrive, their families thrive, and by extension, our communities and nation prosper,” Mrs Tinubu said.

In her remarks, the FCT Minister of State, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, described the programme as a significant stride towards empowering women entrepreneurs and enhancing their economic resilience.She expressed the hope that the grants would undoubtedly provide the much-needed support in helping women petty traders expand their businesses and improve their livelihoods.

The minister, who was represented by the FCT Coordinator of Social Investment Programme, Hajia Maijidda Adamu Musa, stressed that investment in human capital through the Renewed Hope Initiative in the areas of Economic Empowerment, Education, Health, Social Investment and Agriculture have been invaluable.The Mandate Secretary Women Affairs Secretariat, Mrs. Adedayo Benjamins-laniyi, said that the RHI, has become an interventionist programme that has come to stay with a view to supporting women entrepreneurs.

However, Dr. Benjamins-Laniyi while speaking in her capacity as the FCT Coordinator of RHI, disclosed that the UN Women through Mrs Beatrice Eyong UN Women Repesentative in Nigeria and ECOWAS supported the initiative with N15 million to cover 300 additional women traders, thereby bringing number of beneficiaries from 1000 to 1,300 in FCT.