A non-governmental organisation, the Justice, Development and Peace Commission, JDPC, has empowered 150, 000 women in the South-west with soft loans.
Director of the non-governmental organisation, Rev. Father John Patrick Ngoyi, during an empowerment programme organised by the Centre for Grassroots Economic Empowerment (CGEE) of Ijebu Ode Catholic Diocese, an arm of JDPC, said is the programme focused on assisting small scale farmers and poor women.
Ngoyi, explained that the scheme, which was a savings and credit scheme, was established in 1992, calling on communities and traditional institutions to ensure that government at all levels make loans available for the masses, especially women, Thisday reports.
He added that it was important not to ignore poverty as far as there are poor families that cannot feed their homes.
“We must come to realise that to live at peace in this world today. We must not ignore poverty as long as we have a family that is poor, that cannot feed, that cannot afford accommodation, the family that cannot go to hospital when they are sick, one family that cannot feel free around.”
“Believe me, none of us will be at peace, there will be no security; so fighting poverty should be the responsibilities of each one of us.”
The Director also pointed out that, “in every institution of our society whether church, mosque, or traditional, we must ensure there is no poverty in our midst.
“Granting loans to women, the way JDPC which is a church-based institution is a way of contributing to the eradication of poverty in our midst. We started in 1992 with 7,000 and today the startup now is 50,000.
“We just make sure that we keep the value of the money. All the money we gave out, we maintain the purchasing power if the rate of the inflation is 12 per cent plus three per cent as a cost of transaction.”
He said, the commission was not really interested in making profit, but what was of interest is to make sure that they have access to loans that will enable them undertake small scale businesses that can grant a leverage to the family.
