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Kogi State coordinator for Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), Mr Noah Alilu, has stressed the need for accurate and reliable data for social protection intervention for the unemployed youth, core poor and vulnerable members of the public.
Alilu, who made this known in a speech he delivered during a 4-day training for community-based targeting teams in Lokoja, stressed that the lack of accurate data has been responsible for ineffective efforts in the past. He said YESSO is designed to ensure that data base of community dwellers are scientifically generated.
He praised the efforts of the World Bank which has made it possible for such information to be available at the doors of government and other policy makers and those responsible for programs implementation. This, he said, is realizable through the instrumentality of Community Based Targeting (CBT) model that culminates in the production of Single Register (SR) of the unemployed, core poor and vulnerable members of society for effective targeting.
He state that the CBT was used by Kogi YESSO to develop the Single Register (SR) of 12 local governments in Kogi State. The 12 local governments covered are evenly spread across the three senatorial districts in Kogi State.
“Analytically, 360 Communities was captured in the first and second round CBT SR exercise in Kogi State, with 12,529 households enumerated across board. These communities and households cut across Adavi, Ajaokuta, Dekina, Ibaji, Ofu, Olamaboro, Okene, Okehi, Ijumu, Lokoja and Yagba-West”, he said.
While urging the CBT teams and enumerators to see their selection into the program as an opportunity to contribute towards the uplifting the downtrodden, he appealed to them to resist compromises and conduct themselves according to the guidelines of CBT process.
Speaking, Kogi State Commissioner for Budget and Planing, Hon. Paul Maiwada, assured the gathering that the government of Ahlaji Yahaya Bello attaches high premium to the issues of youth employment and poverty reduction in Kogi State.
He assured them that Kogi State government is committed to harvesting all the components of YESSO as well as the five components of Social Investment Unit of the Federal Government towards providing succour for the downtrodden in the state.
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