As part of its resolve to create employment opportunities for its citizens, Bauchi State Government has empowered a total of 1,200 women and youths drawn from two LGAs of Zaki and Gamawa in the Northern Senatorial district of the state.
The beneficiaries were given soft loans and starter packs from the N150 million empowerment programme as part of efforts by the state government to improve the living standard of the people of the state.
The intervention known as Kaura Economic Empowerment Programme (KEEP) is an initiative of the PDP-led state government aimed at empowering women and youths with incentives that will alleviate poverty and provide them with job opportunities in the state.
The beneficiaries were empowered with motorcycles, grinding machines, sewing machines, make-up kits, shoe making machines among other starter packs to enable them to start business immediately.
While flagging off the programme in Zaki and Gamawa local government areas of the state as part of the June 12 Democracy Day celebration on Saturday, Governor Bala Mohammed said that the government has done so much in the area of infrastructure development in the last two years across the state.
The governor pointed out that it has become imperative for the government to improve the living standard of its citizens, particularly women and youths so that the infrastructure built can be put into effective use.
Mohammed also said that when he took over the mantle of leadership in 2019, he met a state whose infrastructure was in shambles, adding that within the two years of his administration, the government has constructed roads, built hundreds of schools, hospitals, provided water amongst others.
The governor said that: “We are being criticized by some people that we have been constructing roads without considering the farewell of the citizens and so, because of the promise we have made, that is why we remained adamant in our quest to develop the state.
“This same intervention will be replicated in the remaining 18 local government areas of the state. The sum of N75 million was expended in each of the two local government areas covered today.
“We promised during the electioneering, to provide infrastructure that includes roads, schools, hospitals, water and we have done more than fifty percent. Despite dwindling resources at the federation account, we were able to execute all these laudable projects, this is to show you that we will accomplish more if you continue to support the government.”
Earlier in her speech, Bauchi State First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the items given to them to empower themselves and become self-reliant, adding that the present administration is poised to giving women a sense of belonging in the affairs of the state.
Aisha Mohammed who is the Founder of Almuhibbah Foundation, an NGO that is providing succour to women and youths in the state, said that many women and youths have been assisted to become employers of labour through the various interventions of the foundation.
She assured that the foundation will continue to collaborate with the state government and other agencies in order to reduce the rate of unemployment among women and youths in the state.
