Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
In fulfillment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Year 2020 manifesto, the Federal Government, in partnership with Anambra State Government, has inaugurated the distribution of grants to vulnerable people in Anambra.
The programme is tagged, ‘Grants for Vulnerable Groups (GVG),’ aimed at sustaining the Social Inclusion Agenda on the poor by evolving a consistent, compassionate and deliberate National Agenda in lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The event, also geared towards lifting about 3,222 poor and vulnerable people out of poverty in the state, was held at the the Professor Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre Awka.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq, represented by the Deputy Director of the ministry, Mr. Charles Anelo, said that they were in the state to midwife the distribution of the grants to the recipients.
“The GVG is targeted at providing a one-off cash Grant of 20,000 naira each to 3,222 beneficiaries of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in Anambra State.
“We are also here to flag off the roll-out Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
“The GEEP is a programme designed for the vulnerable and low income Anambrarians who are involved in some sort of commercial activity and capacity but have never had the opportunity to access loans.
“The GEEP is captured in three signature schemes of Tradermoni loan of 50,000 Naira to each individual for uplifting the under-privileged and marginalised youths between the ages of 18 to 50years.
“The Marketmoni which is 50,000 Naira loan to each individual is targeted for the under-privileged and marginalised women in the society like widows and divorcees.
“Then, there is the Farmermoni loan scheme which is designed to provide Agricultural inputs worth and up to a maximum of 300,000 naira to rural farmers.
“The GEEP programme has a total of 5,537 potential beneficiaries from Anambra State, which would start receiving their credit alerts from today.’’
The minister added that the visit to Anambra State was also to flag off the National Sensitisation for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme which seeks to educate communities and stakeholders on the proper and more effective implementation of the programme as President Buhari has increased the current feeding of 9.9 million school children by another 5 million school children.
The Anambra State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs. Chiamaka Nnake, while speaking said, “this is one of the events that Anambra is privileged to be part of from the Federal Government.’’
She thanked the Federal Government for flagging off the programmes in the state, and having the state as one of their key partners in the journey of good governance.
She explained that the flag-off is a state roll out of the three National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) which are roll-outs of government enterprises and empowerment programmes to beneficiaries of marketmoni, tradermoni, farmermoni and launching of the School Feeding, handing over of the Height and Weight Scales and Farm to Kitchen Center.
She stressed that the Social Investment Programme was designed to promote social protection with the aim of reducing the rate of poverty in the country.
“It is targeted at the poor and vulnerable households in Anambra State.
“The Social Investment is being delivered under four major programmes; N-power programme, the Home Grown School Feeding programme, the Cash Transfer and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).’’
She emphasised that N-power programme is for Job creation and for young Nigerians between the ages of 18-35years with a monthly stipend of 30,000 naira.
She urged Ndi Anambra to key into various national social investment programmes mapped out by the Federal Government.
In his goodwill message, the representative of the Civil Society Organization (CSO), Mr. Chris Azor, commended the Federal Government for the empowerment programmes in the state.
He also praised the State Government for its effort to key into the programmes successfully, and urged people of the state to make judicious use of the opportunities.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr. Ugochukwu Okeke, thanked the Federal and State governments for the grants and prayed to God to bless the organisers of the programmes.
