Kogi State Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) has made public her database of poor, unemployed and vulnerable persons in the state to help government and non-governmental organisations identify and assist the real beneficiaries of poverty-related interventions.
The project coordinator, Kogi State YESSO, Mr Noah Alilu, made the disclosure during a one-day interactive forum for the stakeholders of the programme.
He explained that the world-class Single Register of the Kogi State YESSO is a veritable launch pad for effective and result-oriented empowerment programmes.
According to Noah, YESSO’s single and update-able register is a transparent credible and reliable database of the poor and vulnerable in the twenty one local governments in Kogi state.
“Approved by the World Bank as a dependable database, the YESSO single register can help Kogi State government and political office holders mine and select real poor beneficiaries to be targeted for poverty alleviation efforts.
“The YESSO database provides accurate information on the identity, characteristics and location of poor individuals that can be used to select beneficiaries of Youth Empowerment programmes across Kogi State,” he said.
The project coordinator announced that about 12,984 unemployed youth from the 21 local government areas of Kogi State will benefit from the Public Workfare programme of the Kogi State YESSO.
He said the first phase of the Public Workfare programme implementation will engage 4,404 unemployed youths from six local government areas of Ibaji, Dekina, Lokoja, Ajaokuta, Okene and Yagba West, adding that participants from the remaining local government areas will benefit in the second and third phases subsequently.
Alilu disclosed that the Public Workfare programme was designed to support the state government to provide immediate labour intensive work opportunities for unskilled youth from poor households while each of the beneficiary receives stipends of N7,500 monthly.
He explained that the programme, which is being supported 90 per cent by the World Bank with 10 per cent counterpart contributions by the state government, would engage youth in public works such as construction and rehabilitation of community feeder roads; refuse collection and waste disposal, reforestation/forest guard among others.
He said that under the Skills for Job (S4J) component of the YESSO programme, some unemployed youth in Lokoja local government area have been engaged as pilot project.
