First Lady To Donate N500,000 To Women Farmers

The nation’s first lady, senator Oluremi Tinubu, announced on Monday that five (5) Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI State Coordinators) will each receive N500,000.00, in addition to a total draft of N10,000,000 going to women farmers nationwide.

The First Lady also stated that the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, NALDA, in partnership with the RHI will support additional eighty (80) women farmers from each State with the provision of training and capacity building, agricultural inputs and buy off all produce from the farms after harvest.

Senator Tinubu made the disclosure during the meeting she had with wives of governors under the umbrella of the Renewed Hope Initiative, at the State House Abuja.

She promised to re-introducing alternative high school for girls, explaining that it will give girls who had dropped out of school due to pregnancy, domestic violence, child trafficking, drug addiction and other reasons the opportunity to return to the classroom and eke a living for themselves.

She said already some states already have similar programmes named ‘second chance schools’.

Senator Tinubu, who called on wives of governors to remain steadfast and supportive of one another, commended them for their efforts in their various states especially to ameliorate the hardships as occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy and also appealed to them to intensify their efforts.

She said, “As we all know, the Mission of the Renewed Hope Initiative which is driven by my office, to complement the efforts of the administration of our President and Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR is “Towards a Better Life for Families”

She disclosed that there would be the launch of the We Are Equal? We Are the Same Campaign, an initiative of the Organization of African First ladies for Development, OAFLAD geared towards women empowerment, promoting economic growth and advance gender equity.

A raffle was conducted where Osun State was picked as the place where the campaign would be flagged off.

The First Lady said, “I will be re-introducing the Alternative High School for Girls. It will interest you to know that some States already have similar programmes named ‘second chance schools’. We are going to reach out to the Federal Ministry of education to help us harmonise and restructure these special intervention schools”.

At the meeting, it was also disclosed that the RHI, will be distributing One Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand (1,950,000) Exercise Books to Public Primary and Junior Secondary Schools across the Nation.

The exercise books which are already being produced will be given to each State through the RHI Coordinator/First Lady of the state to the SUBEB Chairmen for distribution to the students through the Local Government Education Authority.

A statement issued by Busola Kukoyi, Special Adviser to the First Lady on media, explained Lagos and Kano will be getting 100,000 exercise books each, while 50,000 exercise books will be given to other States and FCT.

Senator Oluremi Tinubu stated that the RHI will flag off the “Renewed Hope Initiative Women Agricultural Support Programmes (WASP) in Imo State on the 28th of February, 2024.

According to the statement, “The First Lady explained that women farmers would get N500,000.00 each and a total draft of Ten Million Naira (N10,000,000) will be given to five (5) RHI State Coordinators/First Ladies as the case may be.

“In addition, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, (NALDA) in partnership with the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) will support additional eighty (80) women farmers from each State with the provision of training and capacity building, agricultural inputs and buy off all produce from the farms after harvest.”

The highlight of the meeting was the unveiling of the proposed Young farmers Club for Public Schools in each state of the Federation with the proposed uniforms for members.

She stressed that this will encourage food production among the youth tagged #Food on Every table. She appealed to each of the Governors wives to take ownership of this scheme and encourage it as much as possible.

This is the first meeting of the First Lady of the federal republic of Nigeria with the wives of State Governors in 2024. There were over 25 of them in attendance.