18,000 benefit from Canadian project

No fewer than 18,000 women and youths in Bauchi State have been trained in entrepreneurial skills with start-up capital to help eradicate poverty by a global affairs Canadian fund project, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), from 2017 to date.

 Speaking during the end of the implementation of the project held in Bauchi, 

MEDA’s Community Liaison Officer, Malam Iliya Shu’aibu, said that since its take-off in 2017, MEDA had carried out its activities in seven LGAs of the state: Bauchi, Toro, Warji, Ganjuwa, Jama’are, Dass and Katagum.

 Shu’aibu explained that MEDA registered 294 small-scale businesses in addition to the establishment of 509 savings groups across 443 communities in the seven LGAs of implementation.

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 In her remarks, the Country Project Coordinator of MEDA, Mrs Grace Fosen, said their cardinal objectives were to see positive improvement in the business capacity of women and youths; create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs and enhance small-scale businesses in the production and processing of farm produce such as rice, groundnut and soybean.

 A beneficiary of the project, Binta Zubairu, said, “I was trained in business development and financial literacy, where I learnt skills that improved my business. I attended the training in Warji and made up my mind to add other businesses to what I was doing. I switched to marketing and I’m now buying and reselling grains.”