As part of efforts to create awareness of the IYALOJA Scheme scheduled for launch next month, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu stormed some rural areas as well as markets in the suburbs of Abuja to engage petty traders and market women one on one.
Dr. Edu was warmly received by residents of the Ushafa community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and many others.
Truth Live News reports that the program has the target of reaching at least 1.5 million Nigerians nationwide.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced a target to reach at least half the number of poor and vulnerable individuals across Nigeria within the next one year which is in line with his 8-point agenda which has poverty eradication as a priority.
The multi-dimensional poverty is to be addressed through different programs targeted at the grassroots. The chief driver of this Agenda of Poverty Eradication is the Ministry saddled with the responsibility of Renewing the Hopes of Nigerias daily in their millions.
Following the Minister’s visit, the excitement was palpable in the air as the residents trooped out in their numbers as she moved from one petty trader table to the next.
Also, the Minister who left the opulence and glitz of Abuja city center to reach out to the poor and vulnerable people in Ushafa was pleased with the opportunity to interact with those whom the interventions are meant for.
The newly christined “Iyaloja Market Fund,” is a the noninterest loan of N50,000 to be given to Phase 1 of market traders, selected from 109 markets across every Senatorial zone in Nigeria. The process of sensitization and enrolment is ahead of the flag-off, next month.
According to Edu, President Tinubu truly means well for the country and had promised to remove Nigerians from multi-dimensional poverty and humanitarian crises. Presently he is matching words with action.
She also used the occasion to deliver a message of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the residents on various social intervention programs of President Tinubu’s administration, creating avenues for feedback where necessary.
Also, at a community engagement, attended by the community’s traditional rulers, youths, women, the aged, petty traders, and physically challenged persons, food, and nonfood items were distributed to poor and vulnerable households as part of her birthday celebrations.
She explained that the food and non-food items presented to them were in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu, which aims to reduce multi-dimensional poverty in Nigeria. The Minister also used that medium to monitor the inclusion of older people in the community, who have been captured to be part of the ongoing Conditional Cash Transfer.
Responding, Mabel Imeh Odiegwu, a tailor, Hassan Yakubu a petty trader, and Esther Isa, also a trader said they were taken aback by the presence of the Minister in the Community as such had never happened before there.
The traders thanked President Tinubu for the Renewed attention on the poor and vulnerable in the country, noting that with the speed of implementation, a lot was going to change for the better in Nigeria. We commend the Minister who spent her birthday with us in our community.
“We are convinced that truly the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President is real and has touched us,” they said.