The Federal Government on Tuesday inaugurated its N20,000 cash grant for each of the 3, 270 rural women drawn from 30 local government areas of Osun State.
Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said at the inauguration in Osogbo, that the programme was introduced in 2020.
Farouq, represented by Dr Matthew Dada, Director of Finance and Account in the Ministry, said it was to sustain the social inclusion of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
She said the cash grant programme was also designed to provide a one-off grant to some of the poorest and most vulnerable women in rural and periurban areas of the country.
The minister said the grant would be disbursed to no fewer than 125,000 poor women across the 36 states of the federation and FCT.
She said: “Our target in Osun is to disburse the grant to over 3,500 beneficiaries across the 30 local government areas in the state.
“In line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s social inclusion, up to five per cent of the total number of the beneficiaries is allocated to persons with disability.
“We encourage the state government to take a cue from this and other provisions in the Discrimination against Persons with Disability (Prohibition) Act, 2019.
“The grant is expected to increase income and productive assets of the target beneficiaries.
“It is our hope that beneficiaries of this programme will make good use of the grant to generally contribute toward improving their living standard.”
On other social intervention programmes by the Federal Government, Farouq said that more than 12 million households had benefitted from the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
