1st August, 2024
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu says the series of empowerment done in the state were being carried out to build a resilient economy befitting a modern mega city.
Sanwo-Olu spoke on Wednesday at the 2024 Micro Enterprise Support Initiative (MESI) organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) held in Lagos.
The governor said this Micro Enterprise Support Initiative was designed to uplift vulnerable women and indigent youths by providing them with the tools and support they need to start and grow their own businesses.
He stated that by empowering this segment of the population, the state aimed to continue to stimulate economic growth, reduce poverty, and create a more inclusive Lagos.
According to Sanwo-Olu, WAPA is at the forefront of uplifting women and the indigent, providing them with the necessary tools to break free from the chains of poverty.
He said their efforts, complemented by the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, had yielded remarkable results in youth empowerment, skill acquisition, and job creation.
“Furthermore, the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), a strategic partner in this endeavour, provides financial support and business development services to entrepreneurs, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“This Y2024 MESI Programme is a natural progression of these combined efforts. It seeks to build upon the successes of our past initiatives by providing even more targeted support to micro-enterprises. By empowering our citizens to become entrepreneurs, we are creating jobs and also fostering a vibrant and resilient economy,” he stated.
The governor added that the programme is tailored to reaching out to the socio-economically disadvantaged women and indigent youths and old students of the state’s skills acquisition centres via distribution of basic empowerment tools/equipment like tilling machine, shawarma grillers and toasters, fabricating machines sewing, machine, basic barbing kit with sterilising kit and generators, hair dressing equipment and so on as poverty alleviating gesture for the vulnerable women and indigent youths.
He said the programme under his administration’s T.H.E.M.ES plus agenda was rechristened as “Micro Enterprise Support Initiative” (MESI).
“This decision undoubtedly was borne out of your shared hybrid vision and burning desire to improve on the status quo through deliberate provisioning of economic empowerment,” he said.
