- Sheriffdeen Amusa
Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) has empowered over 1,500 indigent women and youths across the 57 councils with basic working tools to enhance their capital base and livelihood.
The empowerment was tailored to reach out to the socio-economically disadvantaged women and indigent youths and old students of WAPA skills acquisition centres.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, during the disbursement of the tools to beneficiaries tagged ‘Y2024 Micro Enterprise Support Initiative (MESI) Programme’, said the initiative was designed to uplift vulnerable women and indigent youths by providing them with the tools and support they need to start and grow their businesses.
The governor said: “By empowering this segment of our population, we aim to continue to stimulate economic growth, reduce poverty, and create a more inclusive Lagos.
“Programmes such as this show our administration’s commitment to consistently empower residents of the state to create an inclusive and prosperous society. Initiatives like MESI and our Skills Acquisition Centers, are working diligently to provide the necessary support for our citizens to thrive.”
He noted that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) was at the forefront of uplifting women and the indigent, providing them with the necessary tools to break free from the chains of poverty.
Sanwo-Olu praised the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs Bolaji Cecilia Dada, and her team, for their tireless efforts in ensuring that the programme continues to gain momentum, reaching every nook of the society and making sure that no one is left behind.
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He urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of this opportunity and resources.
Mrs. Dada said: “Basic empowerment tools like tilling machines, shawarma grillers and toasters, fabricating machines sewing, machines, basic barbing kits with sterilising kits and generators, and hairdressing equipment among others will be distributed as poverty-alleviating gestures for vulnerable women and indigent youths.“I am very proud to say that today, we shall be witnessing yet another bumper harvest of deliveries to a fresh set of beneficiaries numbering over 1,500 across the various LGAs and LCDAs in Lagos State.”
She noted that the programme under the administration of T.H.E.M.ES Plus agenda was rechristened Micro Enterprise Support Initiative (MESI).
“This decision undoubtedly was borne out of your shared hybrid vision and burning desire to improve on the status quo through deliberate provisioning of economic empowerment assets for our teeming vulnerable women and indigent youths who are in the multi-various Micro, small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” she said.