The empowerment, which was executed by the Kogi Enterprise Development Agency in partnership with the World Bank, was done in two batches.The Managing Director of KEDA, Hajiya Rekiya Onaiovo, said the beneficiaries were selected out of the 60,000 registrations received by the Agency, following a thorough screening in a bid to meet up with the very high evaluation conditions of partners.
She noted that ICT could facilitate connectivity and businesses could also maximise the internet space to conduct their business irrespective of their location and surrounding circumstances, warning that beneficiaries must not dispose of the tools as they had signed a contract in that regard. While clarifying that beneficiaries under the KG Cares DLI 3.3 would not receive cash, unlike the DLI 3.1, 3.2, the KEDA MD said that the agency had received the approval of the World Bank for current beneficiaries to get a scale-up grant to fund their respective businesses, owing to their performances after evaluation by the World Bank.
Governor Bello added that the ICT tools distributed to the beneficiaries must be used judiciously to improve their businesses and ultimately contribute to the economic advancement of the state and reduce poverty.