The Dangote Foundation on Sunday flagged off an empowerment scheme for the poor in Maiduguri, aimed at distributing N10,000 cash each to about 54,000 indigent persons in Borno.
Dr Adhiambo Odaga, the Managing Director of the foundation, who performed the ceremony, said that it was part of their poverty alleviation programme.
Odaga said that the foundation was collaborating with a non-governmental organisation, Support for Widows, Orphans and Tsangaya children (SWOT), the pet project of Hajiya Nana Kashim Shettima, the wife of the Borno governor.
The managing director said that the foundation had earmarked N540 million for distribution to the targeted beneficiaries in the 27 local government areas of the state.
Gov. Kashim Shettima and his wife witnessed the flag-off at the government house in Maiduguri.
Shettima described Aliko Dangote as a patriotic Nigerian and thanked him for giving special attention to states such as Borno that had peculiar security, social and economic challenges.