Private donors, corporate partners funding my pet project – First Lady

The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has said the funding for her pet project, Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), is sourced from private donors and corporate partners.

She said the clarification became imperative because of enquiries from some quarters.

Addressing some journalists after a meeting with wives of state governors and other state representatives and regional coordinators of the RHI programme at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the first lady said “I know people are always saying, where do I get billions from?, I’m going to address that. We are an NGO, people give us money.”

She said many donors preferred to be anonymous but specifically mentioned BUA Group as one of the donors.

“Like the food bank we are doing, we have two companies, BUA is one of them, the other one wants to stay anonymous, maybe they do not want people to trouble you. That was the people we started with.

“They give us a truckload of food, and Mrs Shettima is handling that. We go from state to state. We also have covered about maybe seven states, and BUA is joining so that to cover the 36 states. If it is one truck per state, within under two years, we should be able to finish. So, I’m really excited that BUA too keyed into that,” she said.

However, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has disclosed that the ministry has allocated N68 million to each state of the federation to support four key agriculture-focused initiatives under the First Lady’s RHI.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, who disclosed this, said the funding would be divided across the four specific projects within the RHI’s agricultural support pillar: training and empowerment of women in agriculture, support for young farmers, “Every Home a Garden” programme, and the revitalisation of Young Farmers Club.