Nicholas Obisike
Enugu – An Enugu-based NGO,Bina Foundation, on Tuesday distributed N5 million, interest-free micro-credit loan to 150 physically challenged persons in the state.
The physically challenged persons are graduates of the foundation, trained in different vocational skills.
The skills include tailoring/fashion designs, shoe and bag making, bead making and wire works, catering, cosmetology, Tv/GSM phone repairs, among other trades.
Presenting the loans, the President/Founder of the foundation, Mrs Ifeoma Atuegwu, said the loans were in addition to startup work equipment, money and capacity building given to the graduates earlier.
Atuegwu said the foundation was driven by an unquenchable passion to help its past students with disabilities to escape from poverty, build up capital to start or expand their small businesses.
She said the loan would also empower them to provide for their families, boost their dignity and contribute to Sustainable Development Goals.
The president advised the beneficiaries to ensure that the loans were paid back in full within one year, to enable others benefit from the scheme.
Atuegwu also called on them to ensure that the loans were used for the purposes they were meant for.
“On graduation, the foundation gave the students start-up kits with which they used to set up different businesses, after monitoring, we decided to offer them interest-free loans,’’ she said.
Categories of the beneficiaries include the visually impaired, the lame and other persons with special needs.
One of the beneficiaries, Miss Amarachi Eze, thanked the foundation for the gesture.
“Bina foundation has really helped and surprised me in so many ways. I graduated in bead making last year and I was given star-tup and I have been selling beads in my street,” she said.
She pledged to utilise the money in expanding her business.
Representatives of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, and the Enugu State government attended the occasion.
