Dangote empowers 16,000 rural women in Kwara

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has empowered 16,000 women across the 16 Local Government Areas (LGA) of Kwara State.

Each of the rural women was given N10,000 each to boost their petty trade and also start new businesses. The fund amounted to N160m, given to the women during an event held in Moro LGA of the state.

Deputy Governor of the state, who represented Governor Abdulraham Abdulrasaq, lauded the

ADF empowerment programme and described it as part of the key economic tools needed to boost the socioeconomic activities of the rural areas, and ultimately the state.

“This Aliko Dangote Foundation empowerment programme will impact positively on the socioeconomic activities of our state. We are so pleased with this and cannot thank Aliko Dangote enough. We don’t want people to come and unnecessarily populate the urban areas, we want to encourage people to stay in the rural areas and add value to the respective lives and also to the state economy.”

Dangote’s Group Executive Director, Government and Strategic Relations, Engr. Ahmed Mansur, who represented Aliko Dangote, said “Dangote is being blessed by Allah and he enjoys sharing some of his blessings with the people around him. This investment in the rural areas will circulate well in these rural areas and also boost the economy of the state eventually. We are going to do this in all the local government areas in Nigeria.”

The Managing Director and Chief Executive of ADF, Zouera Youssoufou, explained that the empowerment programme is an ongoing activity which all rural women in LGAs across the country will benefit from.

“We have done several states in the past and today we are doing it for Kwara - empowering 1,000 women for each of the 16 local governments in Kwara. Each woman gets N10,000, to be disbursed immediately and concluded within the next three weeks across the state.”