A Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), otherwise known as Paradise Mission for Widows and Teenage Girls, has given between N30,000 and N50,000 to 32 young widows in Nigeria to boost their existing Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs).
The widows who range from 44 years old and below were selected across the country from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Sokoto, Zaria and Plateau State.
The aim, according to the Coordinator, Amb. Mrs. Jane Egbo is to empower widows who have already learnt how to do business but lack the financial strength to expand.
Even though other widows who attend the programme but have no business of their own were not left out, the main aim was targeted to see how SMEs widows would grow their existing businesses.
With the theme “Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”, the Coordinator said the NGO also targets to educate the women on the use of technology.
Powered by a consistent donor, Mrs Victoria Kwosah, Egbo during a zoom talk show with the women admonished them to be financially prudent.
She said the money was not meant for them to solve immediate family problems but to invest in their already established business and to grow it so that in the future they can be financially stable.
Pointing out some success stories from their previous efforts, Egbo told them stories of how petty sachet pure water sellers have grown into a company through the NGO’s cash giveaways.
She also narrated how women trained their children to become University graduates through selling bean cake from the effort offered by Paradise Mission.
She said other widows have been able to build houses, established their own companies from little start-up packs, who were once like the present beneficiaries.
On her part, a guest speaker and a member of the NGO, Mrs Margret Lar, said the effort is rewarding seeing how widows through programmes like this have grown to be big business women.
Speaking to our correspondent on Friday in Jos, Lar also said the widows were reminded not to use the monies given to them for frivolities.