From Owen Akenzua, Asaba
Delta State government is set to commence the third phase of the ‘MORE’ grant scheme with a view to empower young female entrepreneurs between 18 to 35 years of age who are grappling with their businesses.
Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Community Support Services and Girl-Child Development, Ms Orode Uduaghan, disclosed this yesterday during a media briefing in Asaba, the state capital.
According to her, “the third phase which will kick off on Saturday, will be different from the way artisans and petty traders grants were structured and conducted. The state government would collaborate with Enterprise Development Centre, Lagos, as well as Mastercard Foundation.
“This is going to be a bit different from what we have done with artisans and petty traders. For the female entrepreneurs, we are collaborating with Enterprise Development Centre – Pan African University Lagos.
“The center is in collaboration with MasterCard Foundation which is a global company, set to empower over three million African youths with skill sets and entrepreneurial management skills,” she explained.
The commissioner posited that the essence of the collaboration is to bring the training exercise to Delta State with a view to training about 500 girls in each of the 25 local government areas, adding that the training is 100 percent funded by the MasterCard Foundation.
“The retraining is at zero cost to the state government and so, where we come in is that participants who go through the training will undergo an assessment called ‘goal-track test’ and the successful ones will be empowered,” she revealed.
Ms Uduaghan explained the meticulous processes deployed by the ministry in randomly selecting the beneficiaries of the first and second phases of the scheme (artisans and petty traders).
In the third phase, she explained that prospective beneficiaries applied online after which they were screened based on the set-out criteria among which is the age bracket of 18 to 35 years. These young female business owners must as a matter of prerequisite possess a business name.
The commissioner stressed that participants must not necessarily be Deltans, but must reside and have operating businesses in Delta State.
