According to her, the N75bn market women fund, to be known
as the Iyaloja Fund for poor market women traders, will be launched on October
17.
The minister, who made the announcement in Abuja during an
advocacy visit to the Minister of Information and National Orientation,
Mohammed Idris, said the programme would be implemented in three phases with
500,000 persons scheduled to benefit from the first phase.
She said, “We will start right away with the GEEP Programme;
we have Iyaloja Funds, which is equivalent to Market Women Money. We have the
Jaga Funds, which is a capital fund for traders; and Farmers’ Money, which is called the Hugo
Fund. The Farmers Money will be provided to the poorest of the farmers to
enable them to go into the next farming season.
“The Iyaloja Fund will be providing for poor market
women-traders in the market, helping them to improve their capital and expand
their businesses. These are non-interest loans given to these persons.”
Edu said the administration of President Bola Tinubu had
reiterated its commitment to fighting poverty through the eight-point agenda by
announcing the Conditional Cash Transfer of N75,000 in three tranches in
support of 15 million households, which translates to 62 million individuals.
She said the Federal Government also had other programmes
like grants to vulnerable groups under the N-Power, which provides jobs for the
unemployed in the community and several other programmes, including the Renewed
Hope Shelter, where shelter would be provided for the poor and the Internally
Displaced Persons and refugees.
“This programme is not the one you give contracts to people
to build houses. The communities will build their houses by themselves. We
would just provide the enabling environment. And they are expected to source
for everything they will use to build that house locally, including the
furniture in the house,” the minister said.
She sought the support of the Minister of Information for
the propagation of the programme, particularly the National Orientation Agency,
to inform the communities and be involved in the process of the capture of the
poorest of the poor on the National Social Register, which is currently
undergoing verification.