Politics
GOVERNOR Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State government on Wednesday flagged off the second phase training of Enumerators and Community Based Targeting Team (CBTT) to build a social register for Federal Government’s Social Intervention Programme (SIP).
The programme earmarked for seven Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state was flagged off in Lafia.
The training is being handled by the Nasarawa State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) in collaboration with National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO) and the state government.
The second phase training is in continuation of the generation of Social Register in the state through a community-based targeting process.
According to Sule, the training of the enumerators would enable the government to register and enroll the poor and vulnerable households into the National Social Register, which would be used for the facilitation of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the Social Investment Programme (SIP).
He explained that the National Social Safety Net Programme was launched by the Federal Government in 2017 with the aim of establishing a Single Social Register for the poor and most vulnerable households in the state.
“You would recall that Nasarawa state domesticated the Social Investment Programme (SIP) with a view to addressing unemployment and improving the living conditions of the poorest citizens as a means of tackling the pervasive poverty prevalence in the state.
“I am happy to note that six selected Local Government Areas in the state benefited from this gesture, geared towards improving the living condition of the poor, as well as accelerating the economic growth and development in the state and the country at large,” he said.
The governor noted that since the inception of the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme, few pilot states had developed their social registers for the second phase to facilitate the implementation of the program, hence the commencement of the second phase training.
“Today, we have gathered here to flag-off the second phase of the Community-Based Targeting training. I believe that if properly harnessed, this exercise will go a long way in underscoring the importance of the Social Intervention Programme in eradicating poverty in line with the policy thrust of the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration,” he said.
Sule said the Social Safety Net as encapsulated in the programme, is in tandem with his administration’s commitment to improving the living condition of people of the state, especially the downtrodden.
“Perhaps, I should say that, since the inception of this administration, we have designed welfare programmes aimed at achieving Social Safety Net in the state. Part of this endeavour is our policy on youth empowerment programme,” he said.
He urged the participants to live above board by paying attention and internalise the lessons from the training.
“As you are aware, government accords high priority to this segment of the Social Intervention Programme owing to the fact that the Conditional Cash Transfer touches the lives of the very poor in the society, ” he said.
The governor, therefore, called on the enumerators to be meticulous after the training in carrying out their assignment of collecting data for the establishment of a single Social Register for targeted poor and vulnerable households in the remaining LGAs in the state.
Mallam Imran Jibrin, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the governor on Social Investment Programme and Humanitarian Services, listed the seven LGAs earmarked for the training as; Doma, Keana, Obi, Nasarawa-Eggon, Keffi, Karu and Toto.
Jibrin said that the pilot phase of the programme in the state began in six LGAs which included Akwanga, Lafia, Wamba, Nasarawa, Kokona, and Awe.
He said that so far, about 200, 000 households had been identified from the pilot LGAs where 48,000 people had benefited from the CCT programme in the state.
Jibrin added that approval had been given for 50,000 other poor and vulnerable people captured in the register from the pilot LGAs to benefit from the CCT before the end of the year. (NAN)
– Aug. 5, 2020 @ 18:29 GMT |
Tags: SIP: Governor Sule flags off second phase training of CBTT in Nasarawa
