Abuja: Hajiya Nana Shettima, the wife of Nigeria’s Vice President, has announced plans to collaborate with Mrs. Maria Alckmin, the wife of Brazil’s Vice President, to support underprivileged individuals in Nigeria. This decision was made during a courtesy visit by Mrs. Alckmin to Hajiya Shettima’s residence.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Mrs. Alckmin is currently in Nigeria with her husband, Mr. Geraldo Alckmin, for the Second Session of the Nigeria-Brazil Strategic Dialogue Mechanism (SDM). The dialogue aims to finalize over thirty Memoranda of Understanding across essential sectors, including defense cooperation and agricultural technology transfer.
Hajiya Shettima expressed admiration for Mrs. Alckmin’s NGO, which has trained over 100,000 Brazilian women in bread-making. She is considering replicating this initiative in Nigeria, focusing on widows. “I will see how I can partner with your pet project,” she said, emphasizing the potential impact of establishing a large bakery to empower women economically.
During her tenure as the first lady of Borno, Hajiya Shettima led a project that provided free education to females and orphans. She hopes the partnership with Mrs. Alckmin will strengthen Nigeria-Brazil relations.
Mrs. Alckmin shared her enthusiasm for the collaboration and recounted the origins of her NGO, which began over 24 years ago when her husband was the Governor of Sao Paulo. The organization, now operating in 17 Brazilian states, aims to expand its bread-making training to all regions of Brazil. She expressed a strong desire to extend this initiative to support impoverished women in Nigeria.
