Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, said 15,688 people will benefit from the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) in Borno.

GEEP is one of the National Social Investment Programme, designed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to empower and encourage the vulnerable people in the society.

Speaking at the roll-out of the programme in Maiduguri yesterday, Farouq said that the beneficiaries were selected from the 38,374 people who registered for the programme in the state.

Farouq, who was represented by the Director, Humanitarian in the ministry, Alhaji Ali Grema, urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the loan for maximum result.

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“These selected beneficiaries are currently undergoing enumeration and today, I have gracefully come to roll-out the programme in Borno. Successful beneficiaries of the GEEP programme will start receiving credit alerts from Acess Bank from today,” Farouq said.

While expressing the Federal Government’s commitment to adding more beneficiaries to the scheme, she said that a new date would be announced for the second phase of registration.

The minister explained that with complementary support from the state government and other stakeholders in creating awareness, the target beneficiaries and many more citizens would be on their way out of poverty.

“As a country, we will, by the grace of God, remain on the track of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030,” she said.

Many of the beneficiaries, who received N50,000 each, lauded the federal government for the initiative and pledged to use the money to start or boost their businesses.