First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s #EveryHomeAGarden competition has been won by Veronica Mbaya, a 62-year old retiree.
She is to go home with a prize of N20 million, courtesy of the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative Agricultural Development Programme.
Mbaya, from Borno State, also got additional N5 million from the National Agriculture Development Fund and N1 million from her state government, totalling N26 million.
The idea of this competition, according to Tinubu, is to encourage women to grow healthy food at home to feed their families and share with their neighbours.
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She said: “I commend all our first-time women farmers for their passion and dedication to ensuring food security for their families and neighbours.
“I say well done.
“In reviewing the entries, members of the RHI Governing Board selected the best three entries.
“Delegations headed by the wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the wife of the Deputy Senate President, and wife of the Chief of Staff.
“We were all very impressed with the quality of entries, making it hard to choose a winner.
“We have promised the winner of the #EveryHomeAGarden Competition will be going home today with the sum of N20 million.”
The First Lady commended all the women who put in efforts in planting a garden in their homes and encouraged them not to relent in order to be able to feed in a healthy way.
Tinubu said that the RHI board also approved the sum of N1 million to each finalist from states that submitted entries to the RHI Office.
She added: “I have also been informed that the governor’s wives, who are also the RHI State Coordinators, will be giving an additional N1 million to the remaining best candidates who submitted their entries.
“The Executive Secretary of the NADFUND, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, who has graciously announced an additional N5 million to the winner, added N500,000 to other people who submitted their entries.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that RHI launched the competition on October 25, 2023 and received a total of 20 entries from across the nation.
NADFUND gave N500,000 each to the other 19 entries submitted, making it a total of N25 million to the winner and N2.5 million each to the other contestants.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, lauded the competition for encouraging women to engage in farming.
Kyari promised that the ministry would adopt the programme for continuity in order to enlarge it for food sufficiency in the nation.
“The modality of running the programme nationwide will be communicated by the ministry at a later date,” he said.
Mbaya told NAN that she would utilise the money to go into mechanised farming and encourage other women farmers in her community to start small.
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