BY EVELYN ZORZOR
BENEFICIARIES of a small scale business grant in Delta State, have expressed their appreciation to Blue Hope & Care Foundation for coming through for them in trying times.
The Non-Governmental Organization empowered no fewer than 21 market women in the state with N50,000 each, to upscale their petty businesses.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mrs Augustina Palmer explained that the grant came as a relief to them.
“We have gotten used to people asking us to pay money in order to get loans for our small businesses.
“The loans also come with high interest that we must pay at particular times of the month.
“But this people came and did not collect any money from us. Instead they are giving us money to support our trade without asking for anything in return.
“We are grateful and ask God to bless them for us because we all know that the economy is harsh for everyone”.
The beneficiaries who were mostly involved in petty trading, promised to make judicious use of the resource, assuring that they would make effort to ensure that their businesses experience the needed growth.
The empowerment which took place at the Ministry of Youth Development, marked the launch of the organization’s pilot phase of a Cash Revolving Programme targeted at women.
According to the founder of Blue Hope & Care Foundation, Chibueze Ijomah, the initiative was born out of the need to create an all inclusive society where women can attain their full potential.
He emphasized that the objective of the programme was to empower market women with financial literacy, business skills and give them access to interest -free loans to enhance their businesses.
The state focal person of the foundation, Chidozie Onyeukwu explained that the team would monitor the business of the women to ensure that they grow.
In his words, “As a team, we will come back for an evaluation after three months and an additional 50,000 would be added to businesses that have recorded growth.
“The same process would be carried out after another six months and those doing well, based on already established checklists would be rewarded accordingly”.
According to him, the women would be trained on proper financial literacy and book keeping skills.
The team also set up a multipurpose cooperative society for the women, to enable them pool funds that would help expand their businesses.
