News Rendezvous

– Targets 250, 000 family Members Annually 

The Adamawa state governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has launched a Women Empowerment Grants programme tagged, “The Fintiri Business Wallet,” designed to curb the rate of poverty, drive prosperity and boost small and medium scale enterprise among womenfolk and youths in Adamawa state.

Fintiri said, the business wallet is in line with his administration’s eleven-point agenda aimed at boosting innovative thinking,, creating  skilled force and mobilising local business owners through an institutional process of economic development.

Gov. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri made the remarks at the launch of the Fintiri Business Wallet initiative in Yola, Adamawa state.

Fintiri said, “This is indeed another great day for our hardworking mothers and sisters in Adamawa State. 

“It is indeed a greater day for our administration. The formal launch of the Fintiri Business Wallet is one in the series of many social investment efforts innovated by this administration to roll back poverty, unleash prosperity and promote the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) among our Womenfolk and Youth in Adamawa State. 

“The Fintiri Business Wallet, is a point where about three cardinal items on our 11-Point Agenda converge. 

“This is a point where Youths and Women development meets poverty alleviation and commerce (at the micro, small and medium scale). It is equally a point where our women are empowered to conquer their fears, float a trade and carter for their households.”

Speaking on the essence of the Business Wallet he said, “The significance of today’s event is a further reinforcement of our ingenious belief that the instrument for poverty alleviation must be institutional in both concept and operation. While avoiding the unsustainable route of dishing out handouts to a politicized minority, this administration created the Ministry of entrepreneurship with the mandate to engender innovation, provide skills and hatch-out business owners at every level. We also created the agency for Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation (PAWECA), to not only combat poverty and its associated ingredients but build an institutional framework to support entrepreneurship and restore the human dignity to a large segment of our population.

“In the last four years, we have not only been carefully strategic in our poverty alleviation and wealth creation drive but methodically deliberate and purposeful. 

“Through our Skill Development corridor, we have trained over 25,000 youths in various trades and given most of them starter-packs to set up their own businesses. 

“We have equally reopened the Skills Acquisition Centers across the State and training in various skills is ongoing. As I speak to you, fresh admissions into the centers are ongoing. For the past three years, there are over 23,000 beneficiaries who are on a monthly stipends ranging from ₦10,000 to N50,000 through our Adamawa State Social Support Programme. 

“Notwithstanding these efforts we realised there is still a gap of funding the business take-off which have dampened the inertia of the willing and those committed to earning a living from what they have been trained. 

“We also realised that the bulk of our women who run small businesses would have been better with a little support to boost their capital base. 

“Today, with this launch, we are opening a new corridor in our commitment to wrestle poverty and signal the triumph of prosperity.

“This is the commerce corridor which is tagged: The Fintiri Business Wallet. What makes this corridor a unique product is its deliberate focus on women and youth. Starting with a grant of ₦50,000 to each of the 10,000 women beneficiaries across the 21 Local Government Areas of the State, the corridor is expected to empower at least 20,000 women petty traders and another 30,000 Youths annually with the cash to either support or start up trading. “

Fintiri further explains that, “What this means is that going by the UN definition of a household meaning a woman and four other persons eating from the same pot, we shall be empowering about 10,000 households sheltering about 250,000 persons annually. 

“This indeed, is huge onslaught against poverty.  The Ministry of entrepreneurship would also follow up on each beneficiary to provide the necessary entrepreneurial support and run a “trader clinic” to guarantee the health and wellbeing of the trades. We shall continue to build the capacity of our market women in key areas of trade and book keeping.              

“Globally, micro and small businesses have been recognized as the engine of economic development and growth. 

“Access to finance to power such engine has been a huge challenge especially for the operators at this level. The challenge is double fold for women as it becomes feminized by credit conditions imposed by lending institutions and the nature of the businesses which sucks the womenfolk. Most women enterprises are micro in size and operate in the informal sector. 

“The nature and size of a majority of women’s enterprises automatically make them vulnerable and excluded from credit facilities. Yet, they remain the life wire of most households. “Majority of our families are sustained by the businesses run by these hardworking women. Personally, I am a living testimony of a product nurtured by a hardworking mother. 

“If my mother could raise a child through micro businesses to become a Governor, I believe each and every beneficiary that is here today can do the same, if not more.  

“As a government, we shall continue to do our best to empower our women and make them financially stable. Financial stability to our mothers automatically translates to family stability. It means more food on the table; more nutrition; better health; more children in schools; and a more prosperous society. This is partly our own definition of good governance where no one is left behind and nothing is left untouched.  

“On this note, I want to congratulate today’s beneficiaries and assure all citizens of Adamawa State that our best is yet to come.”