Amaechi Makes Case for Women Empowerment
The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has stated that women should be given more opportunities to benefit from federal government’s economic empowerment programmes in Rivers State.
Amaechi made this assertion during the Women and Youth Empowerment Programme (WYEP), which was held in Rivers State by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the Office of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment.
He said that the WYEP would enable 5000 persons to receive loans that would range between N100,000 and N5 million without interest charges.
“What it means is that both male and female will receive this money to do business. Let 3000 out of the 5000 beneficiaries be women because they are good managers.
“I didn’t say free loan. I said interest free loan. It means that you’ll pay back. We must see your business plan or proposal. We must see how it works and know whether we’ll be able to recover the money. We say no interest so that you will not be put under pressure,” Amechi said.
The minister expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the initiative that would empower Rivers people with business loans and vocational skills acquisition.
“We are grateful to the Honourable Minister of State for Labour; the Director General of NDE and the President. They have told me how much they are bringing N750 million to Rivers State. So, anybody who cannot manage it cannot manage anything...it’s the first lesson we should learn.
That’s why I said out of the 5000 names, we should look for 3000 women, not because they are women, but because they manage better.
“Then there are 30 persons that will be trained per Local Government Area by the NDE and they will be attached to artisans to work with and the Federal Government will be paying you directly at the end of the month,” he said.
Amaechi appealed that the intervention programme should be extended to every qualified persons irrespective of the political parties. “Let’s involve everybody. Don’t do party politics because the President’s intention is not just to lift APC members, but to lift PDP members as well as other Nigerians. Here in Rivers State, there are as many PDP members that are hungry, as there are APC members that are hungry. Let’s carry everyone along,” he said.