Speaker Dogara Empowers Bauchi Residents With N156m

Five hundred and twenty six women and men from 20 local government areas of Bauchi State concluded an empowerment programme sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara.

The Speaker also presented each of them with cheques of a hundred thousand Naira to start a business from the skills they acquired, according to a statement by the media aide of the Speaker, Turaki Adamu Hassan.

The presentation of certificate for the participants, who were drawn from across the state, took place at the National Open University of Nigeria hall in Bogoro local government area.

The cheques were attached to the certificate of each participant. They are to present the cheque with the certificate at the specified bank to cash it.

The empowerment programme was on building entrepreneurial skills and the participants were taught how to add value to food crops such as beans and rice and how to package them properly for onward sale to earn income.

Some of the participants demonstrated the skills they learnt to the Speaker and all present at the event.

In a vote of thanks delivered on behalf of all the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme, Hajiya Uwaliya Inuwa from Dass local government promised to apply the skills they acquired make judicious use of the opportunity granted them by Speaker to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Speaking at the event, the Speaker said the programme is part of his efforts to reduce poverty from the grassroots, saying no democracy can succeed when poverty thrives.

He also disclosed that so far, through the support of his friends, N300m has been raised from donations at a birthday charity football match and book launch for onward presentation to internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

"In that event, just for you to know we are not just blessings to you but from this constituency we are raising resources to address poverty and internal displacement in Nigeria.

That event has generated about N300 million and I believe it will be more because people are still pledging more.

"The credit belongs to all of us because if you had not supported me this wouldn't have been possible," he told them.