The French embassy, in collaboration with Alex & Grace Izinyon Foundation Nigeria, has flagged off its Rural Widow Entrepreneurs in Agriculture and Digital Marketing, Investing and Technology, (DREAMIT) programme to empower widows who are farmers and agropreneurs in rural areas to grow their businesses.
Speaking at the launch of the project in Abuja Nigeria,President of the Foundation, Praise Izinyon, said the initiative will empower beneficiaries on climate-smart agricultural practices, financial literacy, among other digital skills.
Izinyon noted that the DREAMIT project aims to empower 50 widowed farmers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Niger State, and Nasarawa State adding that many widows who are farmers in rural areas have not been able to grow a successful agricultural business.
According to her, the difficulty varies from environmental pressure to losing or selling agricultural land to settle immediate family needs due to reasons best known to them, saying an estimated 50 per cent of women lose their land while 20 per cent sell it off because of lack of understanding on how to manage farmlands and the need to survive.
The development, she said, prompted the organization with funding from the French embassy to empower women with skills in climate smart agricultural practices and digital marketing skills to enable them to become global entrepreneurs.
Agro Nigeria