NSIP, NCTO partners Stakeholders to reduce poverty in Adamawa

NSIP, NCTO partners Stakeholders to reduce poverty in Adamawa

From Umar Dankano, Yola.

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction in collaboration with the National Social Investment Programme Agency and National Cash Transfer Office have conducted a stakeholders sensitization and awareness creation training on national social safety net program scale -up in Adamawa state.

Delivering her welcome address at the one day interactive session held in Yola Thursday, the Cash Transfer state Programme Manager, Mrs Mary Apagu Yuwadi said that the stakeholders forum was designed to sensitize the citizenry on the activities and processes of cash transfer programme and how far it has gone in alleviating poverty in the state.

Mrs Yuwadi s explained that cash transfer is a component of social investment program designed by the Federal government in 2016 to reduce poverty and inequality in the country.

Yuwadi stressed that the programs are predicated on the need for a more sustained and inclusive economic growth, reduced poverty rates and the need to reduce the wide gap of inequality between the rich and the poor as well as gender gap.

She added that the household uplifting programme (HUP) also known as Household Posterity and Empowerment (HOPE) is a renewed hope agenda of the President Bola Tinubu which solely focuses on the poor and vulnerable household as identified through a combination of a geographical and community base targeting machanism.

According to her, the Adamawa state Cash Transfer Office has been operational since July 2017, and started with 16,975 beneficiaries in twelve (12) local government areas but has presently recorded over 199,000 beneficiaries across the twenty one (21) local councils in the state.

“Now, we have graduated from manual payment and N25,000 is paid a tranch which is paid to a beneficiary 3 times,a total of N75,000.Presently we have over 199,000 beneficiaries benefiting from the program”. Yuwadi declared.

In his remarks at the workshop, Kwaji Duguri , the permanent secretary of Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development said that the session was timely considering it importance saying that the social register in the state shows more beneficiaries have been enrolled in the program.

Duguri who doubles as the Coordinator of the state operating unit of the conditional cash transfer office announced that additional 450,000 beneficiaries would be upgraded on the social register of the program and that the target for Adamawa state is two million (2m) beneficiaries.

Delivering a good will message from the Ministry of Women Affairs through a representative described the interface as “a step up approach” which will avail the local government coordinators and other stakeholders the opportunity to know their responsibilities bearing in mind the importance of program in lifting up the living conditions of the beneficiaries.

The training rounded up with different submissions from officials of the cash transfer office and participants with a view to safeguarding the success of the program in the state.