By Modupe Gbadeyanka
No fewer than 20 rice mills and 25 fish driers have been acquired by wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, for use by women farmers across the country.
This is part of efforts by the First Lady to realize her dream of women empowerment in the country and make them self-reliant.
The rice mills come in two varieties, those with capacity to process 20 tons per day and those with 10 tons per day.
Seven states are to receive 10 mills with 10 ton capacity, while 8 states will receive 10 of those with 20 ton capacity. The 25 fish driers, with capacity for 20 units per hour will go to 13 states across the country.
The mills and driers were acquired through the Aisha Buhari Foundation.
Mrs Buhari expressed confidence that whenever women are given such an opportunity, they use it to grow themselves and their families, especially in terms of improving their livelihood.
She calls on them therefore to justify this confidence by using the equipment to grow their businesses.
It was emphasised that the acquisition of these equipment was part of a larger strategy to uphold the dignity of women through education and empowerment, which has recently led to the Aisha Buhari Foundation engaging with appropriate federal authorities to revive community learning centres across the country, so that women, who had minimal or no formal education can benefit through a non-formal arrangement.
This intervention, it was also stated, was in line with Mrs Buhari’s belief that women need to be economically empowered if they are to play their important part in socio-economic development, especially those that have no formal education and those that have dropped out of school.
The acquired equipment forms the first tranche of what will be distributed nationwide, and are to be in custody of the wives of the governors of the beneficiary states. Women are to access and use the equipment for free.
