Nigeria’s first lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has flagged off the Renewed Hope Initiative for Women Support Programme for the North West states with 20 beneficiaries from the affected states.
Each state in the zone received a N10 million cash support.
Represented by the wife of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hajiya Fatima Tajudeen Abbas, the president’s wife said each of the beneficiaries who are female farmers would receive N500,000 as part of the deliberate efforts to stimulate women participation in agriculture and food security.
She said, “Agriculture plays pivotal role in achieving sustainable development and food security.”
The president’s wife added, “We are introducing ‘Every Home a Garden’ competition to encourage each Nigerian woman cultivate a garden at home to feed the family and share with neighbours, we want to see food on every table.”
In support of the initiative, the wife of the Kebbi State governor, Hajiya Zainab Idris, donated a solar powered water pump to each of the benefitting women farmers to boost their yields.
She expressed appreciation to Mrs Tinubu for her magnanimity and the choice of Kebbi State to launch the programme for the North West region.
In his remarks, Governor Nasir Idris said his administration had expended enormous amount of money on the procurement of fertiliser, solar and CNG-powered irrigation pumps as well as other agricultural inputs which were distributed free to farmers to strengthen agricultural production.
He said his administration would continue to provide an enabling environment for the participation of women in agriculture including access to market, finance and technology for food security.
