Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has commended the Federal Government for introducing the social safety nets programme targeted at reducing poverty level in the country.
Ikpeazu made the commendation on Monday in Umuahia while declaring open four-day training workshop for ‘community-based targeting team and enumerators on identification and data capturing of poor and vulnerable households’ in the state.
The governor was represented by his deputy, Chief Oko Chukwu.
He said that the programme “is dear to the Abia government”, saying that it would help the state government to tackle insecurity, unemployment, school drop-out syndrome and ”ensure robust planning for vulnerable persons”.
The governor, who said that Abia had keyed into the National Social Safety Nets programme, however, urged the federal government to always accommodate Abia in similar programmes in future.
He said the state government keyed into the programme as a way of “providing access to targeted transfers to the poor and vulnerable household under expanded national social safety nets system”.
Ikpeazu said that the state had successfully implemented other federal government’s social nets programmes, including the school feeding programme.
According to him, the state employs 2,700 women as food vendors for the programme and renovated 303 primary schools.
In his speech, the National Co-ordinator, National Social Safety Nets Co-ordinating Office, Apera Iorwa, said that 199 persons would be trained for the programme in Abia.
He said that the trainees would work with community leaders in identifying and enumerating the poor and vulnerable households in the six local government areas, chosen for the pilot scheme in Abia.
The local government where the pilot programme will take place, according to him, are: Isialangwa North and Isialangwa South, Isuikwuato, Ohafia, Ukwa East and Umunneochi.
Iorwa said the programme cut across the three senatorial districts of the state.
The national co-ordinator said that the six councils, representing 30 per cent of the population of the state, were selected based on the state’s poverty index.
He said that the data that would be generated from the exercise would be used by the federal government “to plan and design appropriate programmes for the poor and vulnerable in the country”.
Iorwa said that Nigeria had more than 48 per cent of its population living below poverty line, saying that the development had brought untold pressure on the economy.
He said his office had trained 1,140 persons in the 16 states of the federation where the workshop had taken place.
Iorwa further said that the agency had established co-ordinating offices in 24 states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 35 states of the federation.
The co-ordinator commended President Muhammadu Buhari for initiating the programme, which he described as unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
He said: “This is the first in the history of Nigeria that the federal government would take such a positive step to identify and enumerate the population of the poor and vulnerable households in the country.”
Iorwa said that the federal government budgeted N500 billion for the implementation of its social investment programmes, including the Community Social Development Programme, Youth Empowerment and National Cash Transfer.
He expressed delight that Abia government had keyed into the programme, saying that the 17 local government chairmen, community leaders and the trainees formed the critical factors in the implementation process.
Iorwa said: “At the end of the exercise, which is expected to cover all the 774 local government areas in the country, we would have a register that is valid, authentic and verifiable.
“It will stand the test of time, to help the government to plan for the poor and vulnerable persons in Nigeria.”
In her speech, the Permanent Secretary/Executive Secretary, Abia State Planning Commission, Adanma Ihuwa, said that the state had created an enabling environment for the successful implementation of the programme.
Ihuwa said that the commission would create a data bank for the storage of the data that would be generated at the end of the exercise.
She said that the data would be relied upon in future planning and budgeting in the state.
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