NFWP asks women to embrace project saving to improve livelihood

Akpan Umoh, Uyo

The State Coordinator of the Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) in Akwa Ibom State, Mrs Ofonime Etuknwa, has asked about 11,308 women in the state to embrace the business concept of the project by saving from their daily income to improve their livelihood.

Etuknwa said this during a media roundtable with Aries Concept Nigeria and stakeholders in Uyo on Tuesday.

According to her, the project being a World Bank and Federal Government assisted project, aimed at creating an enabling environment for women in the state to overcome institutional failures including markets and barriers to enhance productive livelihoods and socioeconomic advancement.

Etuknwa stated that even though Akwa Ibom keyed into the project sometime in Jan. 2022, the project had reached out to 481 Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) and 11, 308 women in three Local Government Areas in the pilot scheme. 

She said that the project encouraged women with livelihoods to form groups and save something for themselves and borrowed from there to improve their businesses.

The state coordinator said that in the first phase, the three local government areas selected from the three senatorial districts are; Onna, Ibesikpo Asutan and Oruk Anam LGAs.

“The project is for those petty traders, those akra seller, those farmers, tailors and so on, those are the set of women the project targeted to improve their livelihoods.

“The women that have their income and can sustain their business and also improve the livelihoods of the family.

“The project also adopts existing groups of women, who practises savings and loan schemes, the project adopts existing groups who are ready to work according to the guidelines of the project,” Etuknwa said.

She said the project has received a lot of success stories from the women who keyed into it in the last few months of commencement in the state.

Etuknwa added that Nigeria for women project has thought the Akwa Ibom women how to save no matter the little income they made.

She urged the women to save something for the rainy day no matter how little, stressing that the one you save for yourself is better than borrowing from someone.

“Nigeria for women project has come to assist these women to understand that no matter how difficult the situation in the country, we should save a little for tomorrow,” she said.

She commended Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom for taking advantage of the project for the women in the state to improve the livelihoods of women to support their families.

In his remarks, the Team Lead of Aries Concept Nigeria, Mr Bankole Ebisemiju, urged the media to help sensitise the public on the benefits of Nigeria for women’s project.

Ebisemiju, who was represented by Mr Kingsley Ogbonna, Monitoring and Evaluation unit said that the best empowerment was self-empowerment as the project trained women to grow from their contributory savings.

He tasked the media to partner with the NFWP to expand and empower women across the country to be self-sustaining.