Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, has inaugurated the Mobile Money Agent programme and the commencement of training for 1,850 beneficiaries in the country.
In a keynote address at the inauguration and training of beneficiaries in the North-Central Zone, on Thursday, in Abuja, Farouq said the programme was introduced to sustain the social inclusion agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
She said that in view of the life-changing experiences of National Social Investment Programme beneficiaries, President Buhari approved the expansion of the programme to include the Mobile Money Agent.
According to her, this is aimed at touching more lives and lifting more Nigerians out of poverty which was in alignment with the President’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that no fewer than 350 beneficiaries from the North-Central geopolitical zone were gathered in the Federal Capital Territory for the five-day training programme.
“The programme is designed to provide toolkits to unemployed youths and develop their competences to operate as registered mobile money agents.
“The training we are starting today will enable target beneficiaries to meet the minimum technical and business requirements for becoming mobile money agents and enhance their entrepreneurial competences to successfully start and manage mobile money businesses.
“Upon completion of the training, the target beneficiaries will be registered with the Shared Agency Network Expansion Facility as mobile money agents and be provided with start-up kits that include a Point-of-Sale Machine, Fingerprint Scanner and Furniture (chairs, tables and umbrellas) as well as a modest capital of N20,000.00.
“We hope that the programme will provide job opportunities to the 1,850 youths selected from the 36 states and the FCT, as well as promote financial inclusion, by providing financial services to unserved and underserved Nigerians.
“It will also enhance the integration of NSIP by enabling target beneficiaries to join the network of agents providing financial-related services under other components of NSIP, such as the conditional cash transfer and the grant for vulnerable groups, as well as in the enumeration/enrolment of target beneficiaries,” Farouq said.
She added that the training programme would also commence soon in Akure and Calabar, in addition to commencing next week in Kano, Bauchi and Nsukka, in Enugu state.
(NAN).
