TheCable

Rotimi Amaechi, minister for transportation, says women should be given more empowerment opportunities as they are good managers of resources.

Amaechi spoke during the empowerment of women and youth programme in Rivers state by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the office of the minister of state for labour and employment.

He expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for the initiative of “empowering Rivers people with business loans and vocational skills acquisition”.

“Five thousand persons will be given loans without interest. Between N100,000 to 5 million naira. What it means is that both male and female will receive this money to do business. Out of the 5000 names, let’s give 3000 women, because they are good managers,” he said.

“I didn’t say free loan, I said interest free loan. It means that you’ll pay back. We must see your business plan or proposal, we must see how it works and know whether we’ll be able to recover the money. Why we say no interest is so that you’re not put under pressure.

“We are grateful to the honourable minister of state for labour, the DG, NDE and the president. They have told me how much they are bringing into Rivers state, N750 million naira, anybody who cannot manage it cannot manage anything…it’s the first lesson we should learn.

“Then there are 30 persons that will be trained per LGA by the NDE and they will be attached to artisans to work with, and the federal government will be paying you directly at the end of the month. ”

Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, said the president is concerned about the welfare of the masses.

“This is one of the very many programmes by which the president has given us marching orders to ensure that millions of people are lifted out of poverty every year, ” he said.

“The federal executive council, any memo that comes to FEC, the first question the president asks is how many jobs will this create for Nigerians? That is how concerned the president is about the people.

“This is the first government in so many years that is so concerned about the people in the lowest rung of the ladder and that is why the president has targeted the very poor of the poor.”