Ms Evelyn Oti , Executive Director of Child Care and Adult Protection Initiative (CCAPI), says no fewer than 100 women have benefited from the organisation’s Village Loan Saving Scheme.
Oti disclosed this on Wednesday in Calabar while speaking with journalists on the activities of the organisation.
She said that the village saving scheme was designed to encourage women, particularly graduands from the initiatives on skills acquisition programmes to save as little as N100 daily.
“We encourage our women to form village saving loan associations where they can save as little as N100 and be qualified for a small loan.
“As I speak, over a 100 women that graduated from different skills training have started their trade through the scheme,” she said.
According to her, beneficiaries cut across the three senatorial districts of the state and that this is a way of empowering women and making them less reliant on their spouses.
One of the beneficiaries of the scheme, Mrs Anthonia Etim, said that she saved only N5,000 after joining the village loan saving association in Ikot Ansa area of Calabar.
“The association helped me to stand as a surety for me to buy a Sewing Machine and now I have finished paying for the machine.
“Now, I am a proud tailor of international status for that matter,” she said.
Mrs Anita Agba, another beneficiary who is a shoe maker, said she belongs to one of the village loan saving associations in Obudu Local Government Area.
“Before, I was doing nothing but after undergoing training with CCAPI and getting loan from the village loan scheme, today I make my own and my children’s school shoes,” she said.
