The Director-General, National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC),Dr. Emem Omokaro has expressed Federal Government’s determination to continue strengthening the capacity of aged women by boosting their entrepreneurial skills in agriculture.
Omokaro communicated this on Monday while declaring open a two-day capacity building workshop on the management of Ushafa grandmothers multi-purpose cooperative model in Bwari Area Council, FCT.
The workshop was organized by the NSCC in collaboration with the small and medium enterprises development agency (SMEDAN), national health insurance authority (NHIA) and 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 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 the aged women.
”This training is to build their capacities to strengthen the institution of the multi-purpose cooperative to function as 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 is if you took, for instance, the cow pee, how many stages of the cowpea do you have at the farmGate.
”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 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 cooperative to begin to see the value of what they have in their hands.
”So, this is intended to also strengthen a kind of economic activities for families who have that kind of opportunity.’’
She explained that, the NSCC’s grandmothers arise initiative was conceptualized into having a healthcare services and national identity where service cards would be issued to beneficiaries by way of modernizing the system.
”So, here you have people from the national health insurance who have already enrolled 43 beneficiaries, the beneficiaries are supposed to have their primary access to health service here in 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 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 to social services.
”The event would provide stakeholders here to have 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, partnership and coordination of SMEDAN, Prof. Yinka Fisher, said the event was aimed at advancing frontiers of knowledge in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sub sector.
Fisher said that SMEDAN would continue to partner with organizations to implement federal government’s desire to support small businesses in the country.
”This is about employment generation is about taking care of the SMEs sub sector of which these elderly citizens are part of it.
”So, while this partnership is to synergise together is also a way of making sure that yes, every Federal Government agencies work together, so that we can take Nigeria to the next level.
”By creating more employment opportunity and at the same time, making sure that there is food security within the SMEs sector and particularly for the Ushafa group of people,’’ he said.
Mrs. Laraba Bawa, one of the beneficiaries of the training, expressed gratitude to the federal government for choosing the elderly women of Ushafa community out of many communities within the FCT.
Bawa promised to utilize the opportunity provided by the government to boost their agriculture business as well as create jobs for younger generation.
”We are grateful to the director-general of NSCC for this gesture and for taken this upon herself to put smiles on our faces.
”We say God will bless her because the genuine love she has for us; not because she knows us before; not because she’s looking for something from us.
”There are other villages but she decided to put this smile on our face 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,’’ Bawa said
