The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration has empowered 500 rural women through the distribution of different varieties of improved seedlings to farmers in the six area councils of the territory to enable them up-scale their production activities which were disrupted as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, while performing the distribution of seedlings to the beneficiaries, said the administration was ready and committed to focus more on the development of rural women who are more vulnerable in the present economic realities.
Aliyu also pledged that the administration was ready to support the implementation of programmes and policies geared towards the development of women across the six area councils in the territory.
She affirmed that empowered rural women contribute to the health and productivity of their families, communities, and countries, thus creating a ripple effect that benefits everyone, and it increases a woman’s sense of self-worth, her decision-making power, her access to opportunities and resources, her power and control over her own life inside and outside the home, and her ability to effect change.
The minister also said: “There is no gainsaying the fact that the FCT has a large population of women and youth that are engaged in small scale farming activities which is why we consider it very strategic to support them,” stressing that the establishment of the FCT Aquaculture and Allied Trades Centre at Kwali has helped to pull over 50 women and youth out of poverty by giving them a new means of livelihood.
In her address, Ag. Secretary FCT Area Council Services Secretariat, Mrs. Omolola Olanipekun, revealed that the secretariat was working tirelessly to initiate other empowerment programmes and initiatives and to partner with interested stakeholders in line with the vision of the FCT administration.
She, however, tasked the beneficiaries to work hard in order to ensure that the improved seedlings distributed would produce the expected yields and become the source of economic empowerment and liberation to rural women.
According to her: “Today’s event is key to the present administration’s agenda of eradicating poverty and creating wealth through agriculture which will potentially contribute to food security of the nation, empower our women and give them financial and economic stability”.
The highlight of the event was the official distribution of the improved seedlings to rural women and representatives of the National Council of Women Societies by the FCT Minister of State.
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