No fewer than 1,628 poor and vulnerable households have been targeted to benefit from the COVID-19 action recovery social transfer in Delta.
Mrs Kevwe Agas, Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, said that the social transfer was a World Banks sponsored programme
Agas explained that the scheme aimed at alleviating the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable households in the country.
She stated this Monday, at a 3-day Orientation and Community Mobilisation and Sensitization Training for Local Government Social Transfer Facilitators in Kwale, Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state.
According to her, it is a World Bank-sponsored programme that has been domesticated in Delta in partnership with the Federal Government COVID -19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) to enable it impact the poor and vulnerable in the state.
“A lot of people were impoverished as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, so the programme is to help the beneficiaries recover from the impact of the pandemic and to alleviate poverty in many households across the state.
“The programme is divided into three results areas and what we are doing here today is one of the results areas being anchored by the Cash Transfer Office and they are training the social facilitators from the pilot LGAs in the state,” she said.
She said that the programme was a rare privilege and that the beneficiaries should be grateful, adding that Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa and his team did all they could to ensure that Delta benefited from the social transfer programme.
Agas also charged the trainees (facilitators) to be steadfast and committed to achieving results as they go about the selected local government areas to validate the list of beneficiaries in the state.
On her part, Mrs Patience Osharode, Technical Head, Delta State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (D-CARES) Social Transfer disclosed that 1,628 poor and vulnerable households from six LGAs would benefit from the programme.
She said that 24 facilitators are being trained to carry out validation exercises in the six selected pilot LGAs namely; Oshimili North, Ndokwa East, Isoko South, Ughelli North, Bomadi and Ethiope West LGAs.
She added that no fewer than 271 individuals and households would benefit from each selected LGA.
She said that the social transfer programme would last for two years and that it would be operated in two phases to enable more LGAs benefit from the scheme in the state.
According to Osharode beneficiaries would receive a sum of N20, 000 bi-monthly; the social transfer will take the form of categorical transfers to individuals and households selected from the State Social Register.
“These groups are categorised under the aged, persons with disability, chronically ill and rural and urban poor individuals and households.
“The selected beneficiaries will be enrolled into D-CARES Social Transfer Register of poor and vulnerable by LGA facilitators and staff of the social transfer delivery platforms, which is the State Cash Transfer Unit.
” This training is therefore aimed at giving the newly engaged LG social transfer facilitators from selected LGAs for the first phase of the D-CARES social transfers the required knowledge and understanding of the programme”.
She lauded the World Bank, Federal and State Governments for the life lifting programme for the poor and vulnerable while charging the participants to give the exercise the seriousness it deserves.
In an interview, Mr Denis Akpuri and Mrs Jennifer Utude, on behalf of the participants, pledged their commitment to deliver on the demands of the training, adding that the programme would be a great relief to the beneficiaries in the state.
