‘FG’s women intervention not reaching right people’

Women entrepreneurs and farmers in Nigeria have expressed their concerns that the federal government interventions aimed at supporting women are not reaching the intended beneficiaries.

Expressing their concerns on Channels TV on Thursday in commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day, they questioned the effectiveness of the government interventions, stating that the schemes often lacked transparency and failed to directly reach women’s groups.

Yemisi Zaria-Suleiman, a member of the Ogbonge Women Small Scale Women Farmers Association of Nigeria, emphasized the need for targeted interventions.

She said, “When you are talking about interventions, we expect the government will come to the cluster, we bring ourselves together.

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“So when you are saying there is a federal intervention, who is it directed to; which clusters? So we are looking up to where the government would be able to reach out to women cluster groups directly.

“We have agreed that subsidy has been removed, encourage us to work. We have ability to work. Some of us have our structure already in place, some of us have lost our working capital, investment.

“So what is the government now doing to relate to one to one, and not say 5,000 women have been empowered, women have been offered ₦500,000 which we did not even see.

“When you say you are empowering these people, it should be impactful. If we are like 100 people sitting, at least let 50 people access this thing.”

Amina Ibrahim, Founder of WildTaste Enterprise in Kano State, emphasised these concerns, stating, “when you mentioned intervention, get it to the right people. We just hear figures and numbers.”

“We are the business people, I don’t mind not getting but at least let hear from our people say I got this from the government. If at least 60% can get, you will feel the impact.

“So, yes, intervention should be send to the right people. Speak to us, come down to our level, let us tell you what we want, let us show you the way, let’s give you the map of where you need to take these interventions,” she added.