Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
An Edo Diaspora support group spare headed by an England based surgeon, Uyi-Philip Igbinadolor, has intensified its campaigns for the actualization of Asue Ighodalo, the state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate actually becomes the governor, comes September 21.
The group, in actualizing this noble project, has unveiled a micro credit programme for the people of the state especially women to enable them set up petty businesses of their own.
According to Igbinadolor, the programme is aimed at crushing poverty and penetrating into the grassroots by providing interest free loans to those who are unable to access the conventional banking and credit system as a result of their social and economic status.
He said Ighodalo seeks to become a governor to give voice to the voiceless in the society and assist the economically weak persons in the state through micro credit to set up their own businesses.
“The programme will empower the rural and urban poor to leap-frog the state into an active commercial territory as well-targeted poverty alleviation packages to meet the desire of the people at the grassroots, who have never experienced direct benefit from the government in any form.
“Dr. Ighodalo wants the poor in our midst to have access to micro credit and means of production that can turn them into entrepreneurs in their own rights, employers of labour, and masters of their own destiny, with the ability to turn the economic fortunes of the state around for the better.”
Speaking in a statement issued and signed by Sir Tonna Okey on behalf of the group, Dr. Igbinadlor said: “The micro credit is grounded in the belief that the poor have skills that remain largely unused or underutilized, and that charity is not the answer because it creates dependency, and perpetuate the poverty trap.”
He called on various market groups and unions to commence the formation of cluster groups and associations ahead of the micro credit soft loans that shall be made available to them upon Ighodalo’s emergence as the next governor of the state.
“Ighodalo is a banker, and he knows how to make the poor become rich through financial assistance. The loan is not for individuals to consume; so it will only be made open to cluster groups like the traders’ association, farmers’ groups, cooperative societies and other small but dynamic groups, with verifiable and economically driven focus, who will effectively use the resources to better their lives and the society.
“All market unions should give their bloc votes to Ighodalo, the PDP candidate in the Edo election, in order for them to benefit from the micro credit programme of the administration,” he said.
Igbinadolor, who recently distributed N10,000 each to market women in the Agenebode Main Market, through the Benedicta’s Market Women money, said Asue is concerned about the economic well-being of the citizens, and described the systemic development of human resources as a major requirement for sustainable economic growth, and prime engine for long term development.