500 retired civil servants have received business grants of ₦500,000 each, as part of the state government’s new initiative to support life after retirement.
The programme is tagged the Retiree Entrepreneurship Development Initiative.
For many retirees in Nigeria, life after service brings more struggle than comfort — with pensions delayed, gratuities unpaid, and monthly payments too small to survive on.
But in Cross River State, a new chapter is unfolding.
Through the Retirees Economic Development Initiative, REDI, the government is rewriting the story of life after service.
Five hundred retired civil servants received a grant of N500,000 each — not as a handout, but as seed capital to launch small-scale businesses.
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Some of the beneficiaries couldn’t hide their emotions.
Representing Governor Bassey Otu at the event, the Deputy Governor, Peter Odey, said the programme is a direct fulfilment of one of the governor’s campaign promises — to ensure no retiree is left behind.
The state’s Commissioner for Commerce, alongside the Director General of the Micro Enterprise Development Agency, described the initiative as a forward-thinking intervention .
