Minister of Humanitarian affairs and Poverty alleviation, Betta Edu, says President Bola Tinubu has directed that 10 percent of her ministry’s interventions should go to Persons living With Disabilities (PWDs) across the country.
Edu disclosed this while inaugurating various empowerment programmes sponsored by the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, (NCPWD), in Abuja.
According to her, the President instructed that the disability community should be given priority in all intervention programmes of Government.
Edu added that the Federal Government was also providing Point of Sale (POS) machines to PWDs as a means of empowerment and also providing N100, 000 capital for them, saying, “We also gave N130, 000 as award of scholarship to physically-challenged students in tertiary institutions”.
“Beyond this, we have also been able to bring officials of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) here to carry out proper registration of their businesses, where N20 million has so far been released for that purpose to enable them get to the grassroots.
“Rather than begging, they will be running businesses that will empower them, their society and everyone around them”, she further stated.
In his remarks, Executive Secretary of the Commission, James Lalu, said the gesture was aimed at empowering the disability community in Nigeria to become self-reliant. He commended the Tinubu-led administration for supporting the efforts of the Commission in alleviating the plight of persons with disabilities and urged the minister to sustain the tempo.
Lalu also urged relevant authorities to expedite action toward ensuring social inclusion of persons with disabilities in the scheme of things.
Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Disabilities, Bashiru Dauda, said the National Assembly would continue to provide enabling laws for the social inclusion of persons with disabilities across the country.
The event featured presentation of scholarship awards to some students living with disabilities and the beneficiaries were given POS start-up funds and kits. A cheque of N5 million was given to the Joint Association of Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria (JAPWD), with N2 million handed to the Association of Persons with Albinism (APA).
