Abuja — WOMEN Affairs Minister, Mrs. Salamatu Suleiman, has in Abuja distributed N38 million grants and capacity building equipment to 50 women non governmental organisations (NGOs), Community-Based organizations (CBOs) and Faith-Based organisations (FBOs).

This is part of the on-going efforts towards the attainment of women economic empowerment as encapsulated in the targets of the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the seven point agenda of the present administration. She made the presentation immediately after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the auditorium of Chelsea hotels Abuja.

She said two funding programmes namely the Women Fund for Economic Empowerment, WOFEE and the Business Development Fund for Women, BUDFOW have been set up to assist Nigerian women access soft loans at lower interest rates without having to go through the usual bureaucracies of commercial banks. Suleiman said the scheme is given through women NGOs working in the mandate areas of the ministry such as women and children rights, care for the vulnerable and the aged in the country.

"The fund is part of the funding given to us by the MDG office as part of debt relief gains among ministries as part of the administration's 7-point agenda.

"As ministries both at the federal and state level, we may not have the manpower to actively go to every nook and cranny to implement the mandate as such we work with non governmental organisation (NGO) who are actively working in this areas like widowhood practices, rights that affects women that are specifically focused in that areas," she said.

She said NGO working towards reducing maternal and child mortality rate, assisting victims of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), improving girl child education, orphans and vulnerable children will also be engaged in the disbursement of the loan.

"The money is not that much but we will make do with what we have to ameliorate the sufferings of the women in the country, we will work closely with these NGO in order to help them facilitate their activities. To do that, in line with the transparency which is the bedrock of this administration, we felt that it was very important to work with the states ministries for women affairs and social development since they are on the ground with the states work out the modalities' she said.

"We have to ensure that those we are giving these money are those that are mainly working on the mandates relevant to the ministries and that money is going to be effectively used for the purpose of which it is intended. So, we intend to work out the modalities today, we have our screening process, application process, how it will be verified," the minister said.