Emem Omokaro, the Director-General of the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC), has expressed the federal government’s determination to continue strengthening the capacity of aged women by boosting their entrepreneurial skills in agriculture.

Mr Omokaro communicated this on Monday while declaring open a two-day capacity-building workshop on the management of the Ushafa Grandmothers Multi-Purpose Cooperative Model in Bwari Area Council, FCT.

The workshop was organised by the NSCC in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The programme was aimed at providing a comprehensive package that would upgrade the small-scale businesses of the women farmers, and the Ushafa community was chosen by the NSCC as the pilot area.

She expressed optimism that the training would strengthen the institutional capacity as well as that of the aged women.

“This training is to build their capacities to strengthen the institution of the multi-purpose cooperative to function as a cooperative.

“It will also provide information about the opportunities that are available to the average Ushafa beneficiary of this project because SMEDAN will begin to work towards strengthening the value chains of every commodity.

”When we say value chain, if you took, for instance, the cow pee, how many stages of the cowpea do you have at the farm gate?

”The cowpea farmer will cultivate; the farmer is also going to process his cowpea at the farm level, where the off-taker, who is also part of the value chain, takes up

”Then, it goes to the next stage, where you process the cow pee to another level of product where you can either improve the sheep’s life before it gets to the shelf or the final consumer.”

“So, SMEDAN is here today to begin that process of supporting the farmers who have been clustered into cooperatives to begin to see the value of what they have in their hands.

”So, this is intended to also strengthen a kind of economic activity for families who have that kind of opportunity.’’

She explained that the NSCC’s Grandmothers Arise initiative was conceptualised as having healthcare services and a national identity where service cards would be issued to beneficiaries by way of modernising the system.

”So, here you have people from the National Health Insurance who have already enrolled 43 beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are supposed to have primary access to health services here at this health facility.

”Now, at this health facility, the beneficiary, depending on the status of their health, can be referred to Bwari General Hospital.

“We have the National Identity Management Commission, who are already working with NSCC to have a service card for the older persons, which would entitle the average senior citizen in Nigeria to obtain services from anywhere.’’

The director-general also said that the stakeholders’ engagement was designed to provide a unique system for senior citizens in the country to access social services.

”The event would provide stakeholders here with an integrated programme where beneficiaries of this initiative can have access to that kind of service, especially where you have a card.

“You can go to a designated shop you know to enjoy certain services, maybe transport services and all of that, so the entire concept is to make sure that we have an integrated programme where beneficiaries can access services,” she said.

On his part, the acting director of partnership and coordination at SMEDAN, Prof. Yinka Fisher, said the event was aimed at advancing the frontiers of knowledge in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sub-sector.

Mr Fisher said that SMEDAN would continue to partner with organisations to implement the federal government’s desire to support small businesses in the country.

”This is about employment generation; it is about taking care of the SME subsector, of which these elderly citizens are part.

”So, while this partnership is to synergize together, it is also a way of making sure that yes, every federal government agency works together so that we can take Nigeria to the next level.

”By creating more employment opportunities and, at the same time, making sure that there is food security within the SME sector and particularly for the Ushafa group of people,’’ he said.

Laraba Bawa, one of the beneficiaries of the training, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for choosing the elderly women of the Ushafa community out of many communities within the FCT.

Ms Bawa promised to utilise the opportunity provided by the government to boost their agriculture business as well as create jobs for the younger generation.

”We are grateful to the Director-General of NSCC for this gesture and for taking this upon herself to put smiles on our faces.

”We say God will bless her because of the genuine love she has for us, not because she knows us before or because she’s looking for something from us.

”There are other villages, but she decided to put this smile on our faces here in Ushafa. We are grateful, so in order not to discourage her from doing the same to other people, tomorrow is for us to work hard.

”We promise them that we will never disappoint them, and the effort they have put in will not go in vain,’’ Ms Bawa said.

(NAN)