Wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has empowered over 500 indigent women in Ebonyi State with business equipment as part of efforts to expand economic opportunities for vulnerable women across the country.
The empowerment items, distributed to the beneficiaries on Wednesday, included deep freezers, gas cookers with ovens, power-generating sets and industrial grinding machines to enable the women to establish new businesses or strengthen existing enterprises.
Representing the First Lady at the presentation, wife of the Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs Mary-Maudline Nwifuru, said the initiative was being implemented simultaneously across the five states of the South-East geopolitical zone.
She said the programme was facilitated through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to her, the initiative is designed to complement the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu by supporting women, whom she described as critical contributors to household welfare, community development and national economic growth.
“This presentation is taking place across the five states of the zone simultaneously.
“This programme has been made possible through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals,” Tinubu said through her representative.
She explained that the nationwide empowerment programme had been rolled out in phases, beginning with the North-Central Zone in Abuja in February 2025, followed by the South-South Zone on April 25, 2026, and the South-West Zone on August 23, 2025.
She added that the programme would, upon completion of the nationwide rollout, empower 18,000 women, with 500 beneficiaries drawn from each state and the Federal Capital Territory.
“By the end of the nationwide rollout of this initiative, 18,000 women would have been empowered across the country, with 500 beneficiaries selected from each state and the FCT,” she said.
The First Lady urged the beneficiaries to deploy the equipment judiciously and use the opportunity to build sustainable sources of income for themselves and their families.
Also speaking, the representative of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Dr Ify Ukaegbu, urged the beneficiaries not to sell the items provided to them.
Ukaegbu said the intervention was targeted at expanding economic opportunities for indigent and vulnerable women while enabling them to become more financially independent.
She stressed that the equipment was intended to serve as productive assets that would help the beneficiaries generate income and improve their livelihoods.
The beneficiaries were urged to make effective use of the intervention and ensure that the objectives of the empowerment programme were achieved.
