Nigeria for Women Project (NFWP), the brainchild of the Federal Government, has said over N1 billion has been raised in various rural businesses across the six geo-political zones.
The money was pooled by 200,000 women in Abia, Kebbi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba states through a sustained livelihood programme.
The National Coordinator of NFWP, Ruth Mshelia, stated these in Abuja on Tuesday during the opening ceremony of a media workshop on women empowerment in the country.
She said the project, which was supported by the Federal Government and World Bank, is aimed at enhancing the socio-economic status of women in the country.
Mshelia said while they have been able to build and convert their social capital to such a huge resource base, the programme was designed to provide grants of N60,000 maximum to individuals in the Women Affinity Group (WAG).
She said being a member of WAG was not a guarantee to the proposed grant for which Northcentral beneficiaries would begin to recover disbursement next week.
Mshelia said only a successful business plan would attract grant approval and disbursement.
She maintained that one of the strategies adopted by Nigeria for Women Initiative to eliminate elite capture was consistency in the programme, which would reflect in the attendance of participants.
Providing insight on the women affinity group and institution capacity building, Fatima Maji pointed out that 237,392 women groups that raised the N1,135,306,305 have loaned N657,054,663 from which, N312,116,792 has been paid.