•Photo: Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri
By SAM JONES, Yenagoa
YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri has continued his quest to take back the local economy by empowering another 420 small business owners in the state with a total of N84 million grant for the month of July.
Addressing the beneficiaries on Thursday in Yenagoa, the Commissioner for Women, Children Affairs, Empowerment and Social Development, Mrs. Faith Opene said the ongoing empowerment programme is an indication that the governor is for all Bayelsans irrespective of political leaning.
Opene said the grant cuts across all the eight local government areas of the state irrespective of political party affiliation qioting Governor Diri that “before partisanship you were a Bayelsan. You are a Bayelsan and after partisanship you will still be a Bayelsan.”
She reiterated that “You know our economy is not in our hands” while stressing that the empowerment programme is meant to benefit mostly people from the rural areas of the state.
The governor initiated the programme in February 2022 and has vowed to continue doing it until he leaves office, and from an initial two persons from each of the 105 wards in the state, he has expanded it to four persons made up of two males and two females per ward.
While the number of beneficiaries has doubled with the expansion of the scheme, the grant money has remained N200,000 per individual making the total disbursement for July to be N84 million.
Opene became political in her address when she asked the beneficiaries if such a man as Diri did not deserve a second tenure in office at which there was a thunderous yes and applause.
She urged the beneficiaries to deploy the funds wisely in order to grow their businesses and to put on their fezcaps when the campaigns for the November 11 governorship election begin so they can identify with the committee in charge of the empowerment programme.
One of the beneficiaries from Sagbama Local Government Area, Mr. Abiola Kenneth, expressed appreciation to Governor Diri for the gesture and promised to judiciously apply the money to grow his business.
