Bauchi Empowers 1,000 Beneficiaries with N150m, Tools

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

In his determination to shore up the economic status and standard of living of the people of the state, Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has empowered no fewer than 1,000 women and youths from Danbam and Misau Local Government Areas of the state with cash and economic tools worth about N150 million.

THISDAY learnt that the Kaura Economic Empowerment Programme (KEEP) is an initiative of the Bauchi State Government aimed at empowering women and youths with incentives that will alleviate poverty and provide them with job opportunities in the state.

The beneficiaries were empowered with motorcycles, grinding machines, sewing machines, Sharon buses, grinding machines among others.

Speaking during the empowerment programme at the two local government areas, Mohammed reiterated the commitment of his administration to gradually and relentlessly pursue economic empowerment programmes aimed at alleviating the hardship of the citizens as a result of poverty, adding that the sum of N75 million was expended on the empowerment programme in each of the local government areas

The governor said the Kaura Economic Empowerment Programme has already been launched in Zaki, Bauchi, Gamawa, Ganjuwa, Darazo, Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa LGAs of the state, adding that Danbam and Misau LGAs have formally joined the economic employment train of taking the generality of the majority of the people of the state out of poverty.

According to him, “When people say that I am doing well, it is not Bala Mohammed that is doing well, it is the people at the local level. We interact with majority of our people, especially those who voted for us and those that we want them to vote for us in 2023, that is why we are empowering them, enshrining and deepening the already known and universally acclaimed PDP reward system that has been abandoned by this administration at the centre.

“Today we are here in the name of the Kaura empowerment programme which started in Bauchi, where we gave Keke NAPEP riders with 1,000 tricycles and 156 vehicles, and we are going round to replicate the same gesture in the state.

“Everything you see in Nigeria, including good services and infrastructure, were those that were delivered by the PDP. They may be claiming what we did in terms of road infrastructures, hospitals and the rest, the APC economic empowerment programme is so huge, but it is not reaching anywhere and I want it to be conveyed to the presidency. “The social investment programme is not working, we have our colleagues at the national level, and we have our appointees who are arresting everything into their pockets.”

Also speaking, a former Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, commended the Mohammed administration for improving the standard of living of the citizens in the state through the Kaura empowerment initiative, calling on the people to support the government to alleviate their plights.