Taraba State Project Coordinator of the Nigeria For Women Project, Mr. Isaac Yarafa, stated on Thursday that the project has empowered 85,847 women across Bali, Zing, and Takum Local Government Councils of the state.
Yarafa disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Jalingo shortly after the project team led journalists to interact with some of the beneficiaries in Zing Local Government Council of the state.
According to him, the project, which was a strategic engagement between the World Bank and the Nigerian Government, aimed at improving the livelihood of women, has trained them in 3,604 affinity groups where they were taught how to build social capital through weekly savings.
Yarafa said the women were also grouped into 40 collectives in a value chain for rice, groundnut, and palm oil processing and marketing, where each collective has 200 women.
“The project has done a lot for women in areas of health insurance, where about 500 of them are enrolled in the Taraba State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme with many benefits.
“We also brought innovation by training them on briquetting, which entails making use of biomass residues that would otherwise go to waste and replacing the use of wood or charcoal. Some of them are already producing and selling for profit.
“Apart from livelihood improvement, the women groups now use their weekly savings, which have amounted to billions of naira, to provide social amenities for their communities,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Daniel Kpanti, the Gimila of Dalopa in Zing, had told the visiting team that the project had added much value to the women in his domain.
Kpanti said the coming of the Nigeria for Women project has empowered women in such a manner that they independently carry out economic activities and support their husbands in taking care of bills.
The team also visited individual women being supported by the project in various economic activities such as goat farming, poultry, as well as affinity groups of women into groundnut oil and cake production, among others.
Mr. Kingsley Ogbonna, a Research Consultant with Aries Concept Nigeria Limited, who led the interaction with the chief and the women groups, told them to continue carrying out their economic activities as a group even when the project would end.
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Ogbonna explained that one of the main objectives of the project was to ensure the sustainability of the affinity and collective groups for the good of the women and the society.
Mrs. Mary Maishibi, the Secretary of Tovim affinity group in Angwan Fada area of Zing LGA, said the encounter with the project was a dream come true for the women in the community.
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