Speaker Abbas Empowers 1,000 Zaria Constituents with Start-up Kits, N100,000 Seed Capital Each

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has empowered 1,000 constituents in his Zaria Federal Constituency, Kaduna State, with business start-up kits and seed capital, describing the gesture as evidence that President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda has reached ordinary households.

Abbas made the disclosure on Saturday while addressing beneficiaries at the distribution of household and micro-enterprise support equipment in Zaria. In a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Krishi, the Speaker said leadership should be measured not by noise, but by the tangible impact it has on people's lives.

At the event, beneficiaries received Point-of-Sale (POS) machines, tables, chairs, and umbrellas, alongside seed capital of ₦100,000 each, tools designed to support small-scale trading and micro-enterprise activity within the constituency.

"Today, 1,000 families will go home with tools, with capital, and with dignity. That is the politics I believe in. That is the covenant between Zaria and her representatives. By the grace of God, we shall keep renewing it. Project after project. Year after year," Abbas told the gathering.

Explaining the rationale behind the specific items distributed, the Speaker said small businesses form the backbone of Nigeria's economy, producing nearly half of the country's national wealth and providing the bulk of its jobs. He used the example of a POS agent trading under an umbrella at Kwarbai market to illustrate the point, describing such traders as people who serve communities the formal banking sector has often overlooked, while feeding their families through honest work. "So what we give today is not charity. It is capital. It is a stake in the economy we are building together," he said.

Abbas urged the 1,000 beneficiaries to treat the ₦100,000 they received as seed money rather than spending money, cautioning that "a seed eaten today is a harvest lost tomorrow" but "a seed planted in Zaria soil always grows." He charged recipients to guard their equipment carefully, keep honest business records, and work to grow their small trading operations into shops, and eventually into businesses capable of employing others. "That is how one thousand beneficiaries become ten thousand livelihoods. We shall return next year. Let us find your businesses standing," he said.

The Speaker situated Saturday's distribution within a broader pattern of constituency interventions carried out under his representation, noting that 2,400 constituents had previously received direct financial support to trade and grow their businesses, while farmers and young people in the constituency had received tractors, fertilisers, tricycles, and motorcycles. He added that more than 110 primary schools and 40 secondary schools within the constituency had been renovated under his tenure.

Abbas further disclosed that he pays WAEC, NECO, and JAMB examination fees annually for thousands of children within his constituency, and that his ₦5 billion scholarship scheme has so far reached approximately 30,000 students. He also pointed to the attraction of an ₦80 billion Education City project bringing four new tertiary institutions to Zaria, as well as the construction of a 100-bed specialist hospital and new primary health centres within the constituency. He recalled that in November, six new projects, including a Women's Development Centre and a new College of Agriculture, had been simultaneously commissioned. "My people, none of this fell from the sky. It came through your mandate. Today's one thousand beneficiaries now join that story," he said.

While commending President Tinubu for what he described as courageous efforts to rebuild the Nigerian economy, Abbas also praised Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, saying the state was fortunate to have his leadership, adding that "Zaria knows it."

The Speaker linked Saturday's empowerment exercise to broader federal reforms he said were reaching ordinary Nigerian households, citing the student loan scheme keeping children of low-income families in school, a new credit scheme opening loans to ordinary workers, an increased national minimum wage, and new tax laws designed to protect small businesses like those supported at Saturday's event. He noted that these measures had been passed into law by the National Assembly under his leadership as Speaker, stressing that "a law that does not reach Gyellesu or Kufena is not yet finished work," referencing specific communities within his constituency.

The Zaria empowerment programme adds to a broader pattern of constituency-level interventions by federal lawmakers across Nigeria, as members of the National Assembly increasingly combine legislative work with direct empowerment initiatives aimed at translating national economic policies into visible, localised impact for their constituents.