Owalo: Utilise Govt Funds For Economic Empowerment

Information, Communications, and The Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has encouraged women groups in Migori County to utilise the various funds being offered by the government to empower themselves economically.

Speaking at Sony Sugar Grounds in Awendo Sub County-Migori, Owalo specifically challenged women from the Nyanza region to apply for funding from the Women Enterprise Fund, Hustler’s Fund, and Africa Challenge Funds and also go for county and national government tenders, preserved for women and the youth, so as to uplift their living standards.

(R-L): Former Kisumu Governor and the Chairperson of the Sacco’s Regulatory Authority Jack Ranguma, Former Suna-Migori MP John Pesa, Nominated Senator Ester Okenyuri, Information CS Eliud Owalo, Former Karasani MP Elizabeth Ongoro and Migori County Commissioner David Gitonga. The leaders were meeting women’s group at Sony Sugar Grounds in Awendo Sub County-Migori. Photo by Geoffrey Makokha.

The CS said that there was need to empower women at the grassroots level through entrepreneurship to lay a strong foundation for their families and society at large.

He urged women to constitute themselves in cooperative societies and formal groups to be able to access and utilise government funds.

The CS disclosed that the government blueprint for the County-Based Economic Chapters will address challenges in the rice and sugar sectors, aimed at elevating farmers in the Nyanza region.

The chairperson of Sacco’s Regulatory Authority, Jack Ranguma, said it was important for women to join Sacco’s as per the law in order to fully benefit from government grants and funds.

Ranguma, who is also the former Kisumu Governor, acknowledged that it was only through formal and proper registration in cooperative societies that women will unlock government funds aimed at improving their social and economic standards.

On her part, nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri pointed out that Nyanza women were not fully utilising the various government women kitties compared to their counterparts in other regions of the country.

Okenyuri urged women in Migori to come together by forming groups in order to borrow from the various government coffers and grow themselves economically.

She explained that by accessing the Women Enterprise Funds, they would boost their businesses, enabling them to pay their grants and loans to unlock more funding opportunities.

An official from the State Department for Blue Economy and Fisheries, Lucy Obungu, encouraged local women to apply for the Africa Challenge funds before the set dateline of September 29 in order to invest the money in the blue economy space.

‘We have two categories of Africa Challenge funds that can be given between 15 to 50 million and 56 to 100 million. All that is required is the submission of a proposal on the blue economy space among women from Nyanza and Coast regions,’ affirmed Obungu.

She said that the Africa Challenge funds will boost Aquaculture Value chain activities like producing fish feeds and fingerlings for sale, further empowering Nyanza women in the blue economy space.

The official, however, urged women to remove the notion that they are unable to perform certain tasks, adding that it is only through trying and being in formal groups that will help them unlock their full potential.

The function was also graced by former Migori Governor Okoth Obado, Sony Sugar Chairperson Jared Kobando, and former Karasani MP Elizabeth Ongoro, among others.

Source: Kenya News Agency