About 760 poor and vulnerable youths selected from the 21 local government areas of Kogi State have been validated and enrolled to benefit from the labour intensive public works results area of the state government Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (KG-CARES) program.
The state commissioner of Youths and Sports Development, Hon Idris Musa, who represented the Governor at the inauguration and orientation ceremony of the scheme in Ankpa local government, told newsmen that the scheme is to ensure that the 760 poor and vulnerable youths get a monthly stipends of N10,000.
According to the commissioner, the stipends will be transferred to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts on monthly basis commencing from June 2022.
He commended Governor Yahaya Bello for his doggedness and for keying into the initiative of the federal government and the World Bank to alleviate the livelihoods of Kogi people by providing the NG-CARES platform to cushioning the adverse effects of the covid-19 pandemic on household’s economy in the state.
Hon Idris Musa noted that the beneficiaries are selected from the already established state government single register of the poor and vulnerable households, without any form of interference and influence.
Earlier in the week at the Okene local government area, during the flag off for the central senatorial district of the state, the state coordinator of NG-CARES, Mallam Mohamed Sani, described the validation and orientation exercise as the first key engagement with the beneficiaries.
He stated that the process of engaging the beneficiaries is absolutely transparent and payments will be done through bank transfer adding that payment service provider are on ground to open banks account for the beneficiaries through which the would be receiving their monthly stipends.
Elsewhere in Yagba East local government area, the orientation and validation exercises took place at the multipurpose hall of the local government council.
The Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Development, Asiwaju Idris Asiru who was represented by the Director of Budget, Mr Joe Omokore, reiterated the state government’s commitment to making sure that the poor and vulnerable people in the various local government are relieved of the adverse effects of the covid-19 and are gradually empowered to be self-sufficient.
In the same vein, the Head of Labour Intensive Public Works, Elder Oladipo Elkanah who is driving the result area 1.2 for public works, while speaking on the validation and orientation exercise in Lokoja local government council, said his office is working with the community development officers in the various council areas to ensure that the beneficiaries performed public works activities on public utilities in their communities for three hours daily during the month.
He assured that at the end of each month they would receive the stimulus stipends transfer based on their works performance.
