By SundiataPOST, Abuja
As part of its efforts to encourage the activities of cooperative societies in the state, the Delta government has approved N15 million for them.
The state’s Commissioner for Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Chief Betty Efekodha, announced the approval in Asaba on Tuesday while addressing newsmen.
Efekodha also said 51 cooperative societies benefitted from the federal government’s Women Fund for Economic Empowerment (WOFEE) programme in the last three years.
She said that WOFEE was an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with the Nigeria Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB).
The commissioner said the programme aimed to channel micro-credits to grassroots women groups through the state ministries of women affairs.
According to her, 51 cooperative groups in the state fulfilled the requirements to access the facility and got N300,000 each in the last three years.
She also said the Delta government through her ministry had empowered 237 widows under its “Grant to Widow Living with HIV/AIDS’’ initiative.
Efekodha said the programme was designed to boost the financial status of the widows and enable them to take care of themselves and their children.
“Since the programme was initiated in 2004, at least 237 widows have benefited from it and in 2012 alone, 30 persons benefited from this programme,’’ she said.
She said no fewer than 150 students had benefited from the Delta State Residential Rehabilitation Life Skill Acquisition Programme since it was inaugurated in 2009.
She said it was initiated for young girls who, for one reason or another, were not able to complete their secondary education.
