Empowering Housewives For Economic Prosperity – The Story of Hafsa Bello

By Muhammad Sa’id

There is no gain saying the fact that housewives play critical, central role in the socioeconomic wellbeing of their families, especially when they are empowered to carry out such tasks without let or hindrance, such as the lack of the desired skills or capital that will enable them to play their part in contributing to the economic sustenance of their families. In fact, the inability of housewives to contribute to the economic sustainability and stability of their families can lead to feeling of inferiority complex thereby damping their morale by failing to carry out their complementary role in ensuring the wellbeing of their family.
Therefore, households which are an integral component of national development can only play their part effectively when heads of the families particularly housewives acquire the desired skills and capital to become economically empowered to be able to play their roles as co-partners in the economic advancement of their families and by extension their community and the nation at large. It is worthy to note that there wouldn’t be meaningful development when households are bedeviled with poverty, illiteracy and lack of the desired skills and capital to contribute to national growth.
Obviously worried by the inability of households to play their roles as critical contributors to national economic growth due to militating factors such as poverty, absence of desired skills and required capital governments at different levels and times initiate policies and programmes with the aim of changing the narratives. In this regard, programmes such as Better Life initiated by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, Family Economic Advancement Programme of the Sani Abacha regime readily come to mind.
However, mindful of failures of past attempts at addressing poverty related development challenges aimed at enhancing socio-economic wellbeing of Nigerians for national development, the federal government under former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 established the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) to address immediate and long-term socio-economic imbalance and inequalities, alleviate poverty and stimulate accelerated economic growth.
The National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) can be said to be the biggest and the most expansive social protection and poverty eradication programme put in place by any government in Nigeria. It was carefully tailored to provide safety nets to address the immediate and long term social-economic challenges faced by the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria with a view to bringing succor and uplift their living standard.
Since its inception, the NSIP which is domiciled with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social development, millions of Nigerians have benefited and continue to benefit directly and indirectly from different clusters of the programme. Many who were hitherto poor or underprivileged have been lifted out of poverty through the Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT); they now own small businesses thus improving their quality of life significantly. Another component of the NSIP which has greatly impacted positively on the lives of many Nigerians, especially the youth who direly needed a push to actualize their dream and unleash their potential is the CCT programme which aims to provide Nigerians with financial incentives to enhance their capacity in their chosen trades, provide learning opportunities and job experience, as well as income for startups of economic transforming initiatives for a more meaningful life and better living.
The NSIP programmes target key socio-economic sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture and smallholder businesses with the aim of alleviating poverty and ensure rapid development of the sectors. In this regard, it is instructive to note that the impact of the intervention is palpable in many respects. Many households and individuals have benefitted and continue to benefit directly from the programme.
The NSIP has impacted on many households through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and the N-Power programs. Many homes that were hitherto unable to meet their parental obligation of providing livelihood for their families are now gainfully employed and are contributing to the sustenance of their families. The beneficiary households whose business lives have witnessed rapid and unprecedented progress run into millions of individual family members and multiple homes.
Examples abound of many household members who benefitted and continue to benefit from the NSIP programme; one of such beneficiaries is Mrs. Hafsa Bello, a housewife and resident of Adamawa state whose idle and jobless condition was changed to that of someone who owns streams of businesses after becoming a beneficiary of the NSIP’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT). In an exclusive interview featured on the NSIP’s official YouTube page BETTER LIFE NG, Mrs. Bello gave account of how the CCT programme turned around her fortune from an idle housewife to a proud business owner.
In her testimony, a now happily and fulfilled Hafsa, recalled with nostalgia how she was idle and jobless until the commencement of the NSIP which changed her story from that of despair and hopelessness to that of hope and prosperity. She started by thanking God for the change in her, saying “I thank God, before now I was sitting idle doing nothing. Suddenly my name was included among the CCT beneficiaries and I began to receive Buhariyya Money stipend of N10,000. I asked my husband what to do with the money and he advised me to buy livestock.”
She noted that “I started with three goats and after a year they were multiplying through giving birth to new upsprings. I took some to the market and sold them then added the money to my initial capital because I was still selling Zobo and Kunun Zaki drinks. I bought a grinding machine and I keep saving in addition to processing livestock feeds to the extent that I expanded and started poultry business.”
Mrs. Bello further revealed that when the then Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouk visited their state to explain the CCT intervention and supervised the disbursement, some beneficiaries were asked to use their ATM in order to attempt cashing out their stipend which they successful did by withdrawing their cash in her presence, in return we were asked to go and follow the same process which we did and received N40,000 (Fourty Thousand Naira) instantly.”
Inspired by the successes she recorded since she became a beneficiary of the CCT intervention, Mrs. Bello noted that “seeing the progress I was making I expanded to Poultry where I started with the purchase of two cartons which I used and stoked my cage.” She further explained that “as for the feeds for my poultry, I was buying a bag at the cost of N8,500 (Eight Thousand and Five Hundred Naira) in addition to purchase of drugs to help keep the chicken healthy.” Adding that “this is how I started and I keep improving on the poultry business. To God be the glory, I’m now fulfilled, I thank President Muhammadu Buhari for initiating this laudable programme that has liberated me and so many others who were hitherto idle and jobless.”
Apparently concerned by the lack of spirit of continuity by successive administrations, Mrs. Bello appealed to the successor of President Buhari to ensure that the CCT and other cluster programmes under the NSIP are continued and sustained. She said the appeal has become necessary so that they can continue to sustain their families and improve on their living conditions.
Hafsa Bello is an entrepreneur who finally got the opportunity to make a living and even expand her streams of income with the help of the Federal Government’s CCT. She is one of the almost 10 million individuals who are directly benefitting from the programme.
The National Cash Transfer Programme also known as Household Uplifting Programme (HUP) is one of the social safety net programmes that was conceived in 2016. It was conceived as part of the Federal Government’s larger growth social inclusion strategies aimed at addressing key social concerns in the country. The programme is a component of the National Social Safety Net Programmes which is supported by the World Bank to provide fund support to targeted poor and vulnerable Nigerian Households.
. From the foregoing, it is clear that a well articulated and faithfully implemented National Social Investment Programme with clusters like the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) purely anchored on eligible and qualified teeming unemployed housewives will address myriad of socioeconomic challenges facing the Nigerian nation thereby taming the monster of joblessness and provide the beneficiaries with the necessary skills that would stimulate economic growth for both the citizenry and the nation at large which can bring about the necessary accelerated national development for all.
In fact, the empowerment of housewives is even more desirable considering their role in child upbringing and their contribution to the stability of their various families which extend to their communities, local governments and states thereby contributing to national envelopment. Therefore, when properly implemented, empowerment programmes like the CCT will engender sustainable economic growth which can bring about the desired, necessary impetus that is required to stimulate national economic growth.