The Renewed Hope Initiative of the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has empowered 110 women traders in Ebonyi State.

The empowerment was in collaboration with Better Health for Rural Women, Children, and Internally Displaced Persons Foundation (BERWO).

The women were empowered with N50,000, wrappers, and handbags to stock their shops while educational materials were donated to students.

Wife of the state governor, Mary-Maudline Nwifuru, said during the event in Abakaliki that the programme was designed to improve small-scale businesses of rural women in the state.

She said, “Women traders contribute significantly to economic growth.

“The empowerment programme is therefore designed to equip women with resources and tools needed to strive and expand their businesses.”

Mrs Nwifuru, who is also the RHI Coordinator in the state, advised the beneficiaries to sell the items a little below market price to make life bearable for the consumers.

She thanked Governor Francis Nwifuru and Mrs Tinubu for supporting rural women to expand their businesses with a view to increasing their profit margin.

This, she said, would improve the quality of life of their respective families in the long run.

The governor’s wife, who is also the founder of BERWO, expressed the RHI and the foundation’s commitment to sustain the empowerment of women in the state.

She added that the organisations would equally advance gender equality and support women to make meaningful contributions to the development of their communities.

Also speaking was the Commissioner for Education, Paul Nwobashi, who received the educational materials on behalf of the students and thanked the First Lady and Mrs Nwifuru for the gesture.

One of the beneficiaries, Chioma Okenmiri, a small business owner, said that the support has given rural women hope that they would survive the current economic hardship.

The beneficiaries were selected from 13 local government areas of the state.

(NAN)