Vice President Kashim Shettima has launched the Community Investment Fund under the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up Project in Katsina, targeting more than 40,000 women for business capital.

Mr Shettima said the initiative was designed to expand economic opportunities for women, strengthen household livelihoods and promote inclusive economic growth through access to finance, training and productive resources.

The vice president said the programme recognised the important role women play in household welfare and the economy, noting that many women continue to shoulder heavy responsibilities with limited access to capital.

He said the Community Investment Fund would build on the savings and group activities of Women Affinity Groups (WAGs), enabling eligible beneficiaries to expand existing businesses, establish new enterprises and improve their household incomes.

Mr Shettima said the programme links savings and lending with financial literacy, training and access to productive resources, stressing that women must understand the terms of borrowing and be equipped to distinguish revenue from profit.

He commended Governor Dikko Radda for prioritising women and vulnerable households, saying government must ensure that economic policies translate into tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary citizens.

“We should never confuse a small business with a small aspiration. The scale of an enterprise often tells us much more about the owner’s access to finance than about the reach of her imagination,” he said.

The VP said the federal government expected the programme to produce measurable improvements in businesses, household earnings, women’s economic decision-making, and families’ resilience to unexpected challenges.

He urged programme administrators to ensure eligibility remains the basis for access, without favouritism or political interference, and called for proper documentation and transparency in all transactions.

In his remarks, Mr Radda said Katsina had contributed more than N4 billion to the programme so far and had recently approved another N4 billion to strengthen the initiative and expand its coverage.

He said the state initially began implementation in three local government areas, including Katsina, Funtua and Daura, and had since expanded the programme to six additional local government areas, with plans to cover all 34 LGAs.

The governor said the flag-off marked the start of the disbursement process, not its conclusion, assuring women whose groups were not receiving funds immediately that eligible groups would be considered as they satisfy the programme’s requirements.

Mr Radda urged beneficiaries to use the funds strictly for productive economic activities, maintain proper records and uphold the principles of savings, mutual support, financial discipline and collective responsibility.

He also highlighted the participation of women with hearing impairment, who had formed their own Women Affinity Group and demonstrated that disability should not be a barrier to economic participation.

The governor appealed to the World Bank and other development partners for additional financial and technical support to enable Katsina to expand the programme and reach more eligible women, particularly in underserved communities.

The World Bank Country Director, Mathew Verghis, said the Nigeria for Women Programme was based on the recognition that the country could not achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth without women’s full participation.

He said the World Bank estimated that closing gender gaps in agriculture, self-employment and wage employment could generate $22.9 billion, equivalent to about 5.8 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP.

The country director said the $405 million scale-up programme, building on a pilot that supported about 460,000 women, was being implemented across 32 states, with a target to directly reach five million women and help create 4.5 million jobs.

Mr Verghis said participating women had already mobilised and saved more than N20 billion of their own resources, describing them not merely as beneficiaries but as investors in their families and communities.

(NAN)