Residents of Yan Barau village in Dawakin Kudu local government have described the federal government’s empowerment scheme, tradermoni as the best method of alleviating poverty among less-privileged Nigerians.
Some of the beneficiaries of the scheme in the village, comprising rice sellers, beans-cake (Kosai), groundnut oil, Fura makers and vegetable sellers among others, told Chronicle that the scheme has improved their wellbeing.
Leader of ricer sellers, Malama Salamatu Nura said they were engaged in rice business with the little money they were given by the federal government under the scheme, noting that “we have been given N45,000 in four installments. We buy rice from Kwanar Dawakin Kudu and sell to interesting buyers here at Yan Barau village.
“The scheme has improved our wellbeing. We are taking care of the needs of our children especially regarding their studies. We do buy books, uniforms and other items they needed in school to facilitate their studies.
“I have 16 members under me. I bought a goat with the proceeds of the rice business. Other members also benefitted from the scheme as they bought one thing or the other courtesy of this scheme,” she said.
Malama Aisha Adamu is the leader of a group that specialized in selling Fura and she told our reporter that all the 23 members of the group had received assistance from the tradermoni scheme four times since the commencement of the programme.
She explained that first they were given N10,000 each, later another N10,000 and then N15,000 and finally N10,000, adding that the cash had improved their business, as according to her they had expanded their business to cover the neighboring villages.
Another beneficiary and leader of groundnut oil makers’ group, Malama Ramatu Ali, said before she collected the assistance, her capital was only N3,000 but now she had a capital of N52,500 in addition to the two goats she bought from the proceeds of her business.
Ramatu added that members of her group were now planning of expanding their business to cover the neighboring villages in the next few months, noting that “we are operating like one family. We buy groundnut oil only from our members.
“While members of other groups buy our product, we also buy other goods from members of other groups such as rice, vegetable and other products being produced by members of other groups. We are doing this to help ourselves,” she said.
Maryam Husaini, a leader of Beans-cake makers said, she always buy groundnut oil from members of tradermoni scheme and they too buy Kosai from her, noting that “we are exchanging money among ourselves. In addition to patronizing our businesses, we also organized monthly contribution among ourselves.
“Each registered member, is contributing N1,000 monthly and this system has been very helpful to us. Sincerely speaking, we appreciate the tradermoni empowerment scheme because it has improved our wellbeing and we thanked President Buhari for the scheme.”
Malam Abdullahi Alasan is the representative of the beneficiaries of the federal government’s empowerment scheme in Yan Barau village and he told Chronicle the scheme was successful in the village and that about 500 women had benefited from it.
Alasan, however, expressed disappointment with some officials handling the scheme, for collecting N1,500 each from the beneficiaries. He said, the officials claimed that the N1,500 was meant for opening of accounts for the beneficiaries.
He called on the federal government to investigate the matter as he suspected foul-play on the part of some officials assigned to handle the scheme by the federal government.
He explained that following the introduction of the scheme, women in Yan Barau village had embraced various small-scale businesses in the village and that money is now circulating among them.
He said, “We have about 15 groups under this scheme in this village. We started benefiting from the scheme in 2018 and about 500 women have benefitted. If this scheme can be expanded, over 5,000 women can benefit.”
He advised the federal government to maintain the status quo of channeling the assistance through the traditional leaders, whom he said were closer to the less privileged at the grassroots level.
“The scheme is the best way of rewarding the electorates especially women. This is the first time, women in this community benefitted from the federal government’s scheme of this nature. We appreciate the federal government on this scheme,” he concluded.
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