By Ahmed Attahiru, Gusau
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Faruk has disclosed that the Federal government will expand cash transfer to one million additional households in the country.
The Minister made the disclosure Monday during a town hall meeting with stakeholders at Taula event center in Gusau, Zamfara state capital said Federal government has reiterated its commitment to support the state government in addressing the challenges of economic vulnerability.
“The Ministry will continue its partnership with the State Government to implement humanitarian, social inclusion and protection measures,” she said.
According to the Minister, food insecurity, is a derivative of man-made and natural disasters being experienced in the North West, “this is also of particular concern to the government.
“I come before you as a daughter of Zamfara state, seeking to collaboratively engage the state government and critical stakeholders on how the ministry and its agencies can support our vision of a greater Zamfara and indeed, a united Nigeria.
“The townhall meeting is significant, as it will allow us to collectively communicate, identify, articulate and derive solutions to the humanitarian and developmental challenges that have arisen in the State from banditry, extreme weather conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Farouk said.
She explained that COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, ongoing activities of armed bandits and the flooding experienced across the North West had led to the displacement of over 247,000 persons across Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi, which has impacted the economic and agricultural activities, creating socio and economic vulnerabilities.
“The Federal fovernment through the non-graduate programmes, revived the apprenticeship culture by building a skilled workforce of volunteers equipped with life-long skills.
“Volunteers are trained in automobile repair, hospitality, carpentry and joinery, plumbing and pipefitting, 2D/3D animation, scriptwriting, tech software and hardware, voice acting, video production, electrical installation, masonry and tiling.
“Under the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) being run in 35 states of the federation and the FCT with over nine million children being fed as part of wider efforts by the Federal Government to address hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria,” she further said.
The Minister maintained that approximately, 282,529 pupils in Zamfara state are being fed in 1,759 schools across the 14 LGAs with meals prepared by over 2000 cooks.
The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is a flagship programme of the FG that has three prominent products, which include TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni spread across 2,678 clusters or markets, traders and farmers.
The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) has achieved since its relocation to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Zamfara states, previously not receiving payment have started receiving payment.
“Beneficiaries enrolled into the program increased from 630,964 poor and vulnerable households with direct household beneficiaries of 3,201,402 as at August 2019 to 1,289,405 Poor and vulnerable households with 6,443,878 direct household beneficiaries as at August 2020.
“The numbers of beneficiaries receiving payment has increase from 469,362 HHs in 22 states to over one illion HHs in 34 states,” she said.
The minister further revealed that Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan’ document, the existing Social Investment Programmes were being expanded to offer greater and wider protection to the most vulnerable persons and communities.
“In October 2019, the Zamfara Social Register had 175,955 poor and vulnerable households (PVHHs) made up of 802,279 individuals.
“Today, the register has grown under my stewardship to 420,358 PVHH and 1,950,201 individuals that will benefit from the government’s social safety net programmes.
“Furthermore, cash transfers will be expanded to cover an additional one million households, nationwide.
“Zamfara will have a total of 138,861 new beneficiaries, in addition to the 130,000 currently being paid through the cash transfer programme.
“We have worked assiduously with the State government to provide the good people of Zamfara State with programmes”.
The Minister however, disclosed that federal government has cognisant of the fact that to improve they must engage to identify any gaps and work collectively to address the challenges.
“Our goal is to listen to all stakeholders in the development of policies and programmes, so that we actively adopt and utilise the ideas and solutions,to re-imagine and define a new approach to tackling and effectively resolve social and economic vulnerabilities”.
