In a bid to alleviate poverty and economically empower urban women, Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas, (MEPMA) has launched the Livelihoods & Entrepreneurship Acceleration Plan (LEAP).

The plan, initiated at the direction of Chief Minister Mr. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, and Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Mr. P. Narayana aims to develop at least one entrepreneur in every household across the State.

In a recent event chaired by MEPMA Mission Director Mr. NM Tej Bharat MEPMA Mission Director stated that over 7 lakh women in self-help groups (SHGs) are already engaged in small-scale businesses, including soap-making, incense production, paper plate manufacturing, and food processing. He informed that while many of these ventures are active, they require assistance in branding, marketing, and scaling.

The government, he added, has facilitated Rs 16,000 crore in loans to SHGs in the last nine months. In Andhra Pradesh, we are working towards the socio-economic empowerment of 99% i.e. 2,74,078 groups with 28,74,000 members by organizing comprehensive information of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in urban areas under the Mepma area through SHG Profiling APP he said.

SME Forum President Mr. Vinod Kumar Voothu and DG Ms. Sushma Mordhania said the forum intends to create 30,000 urban women entrepreneurs -10,000 scaling up existing businesses and 20,000 launching new ones.

They assured support in areas such as capacity building, business mapping etc. The programme is set to conclude by June 8 and targets the transformation of self-employed women into sustainable entrepreneurs through skill-building, funding support, and market access.