By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, today in Abuja disbursed funds under the government’s Economic Sustainable Plan to 5,054 beneficiaries in the nation’s capital.
Aliyu who flagged off the ceremony in Abuja said the figure is made up of 3,650 beneficiaries of Social Transfer scheme; and 1,404 beneficiaries of Livelihoods grant, adding that the social transfer would run for 12 months of six cycles.
She explained that beneficiaries under this result area would be receiving stipends of N20, 000.00 bimonthly payments, while beneficiaries under the Livelihood Grants programme would receive between N50, 000.00 to N135, 000.00, one-off payment, depending on the business category.
The minister said; “The programmes is anchored under the COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) scheme. It is designed to expand access to livelihood support, food security services, and grants to poor and vulnerable households and firms.
“It also seeks to promote recovery of Medium Scales Enterprises (MSEs) in the country and revive the economy, especially in the rural areas, where over 70 percent of our population dwells.”
According to the minister, beyond the NG-CARES initiatives, the FCT Administration this year implemented a set of other support programmes to residents of the Territory including the FADAMA CARES, CSDP CARES and the AEA CARES at different times and locations.
Aliyu noted that the initiative is part of APC government’s blue-print for lifting 100 million people from poverty through comprehensive policies of Conditional Cash Transfer, Home Grown School Feeding and the N-Power schemes, Government Economic and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), Trader Moni, Market Moni and a host of others.
“These programmes have impacted positively on the lives of the ordinary citizens.”
FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola, said the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria led to the closure of many MSEs, loss of jobs, stalled provision of basic services in poor communities; thereby increasing the population of Nigerians living below the poverty line.
Adesola also noted that as a response to these challenges, the World Bank supported the Federal Government with the sum of USD 750 Million to assist other states and FCT to implement a two-year emergency response programme, named the “Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus” (NG-CARES).
According to him, the NG-CARES programme seeks to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the livelihoods of poor individuals, farmers, vulnerable households, communities and owners of Micro and Small Enterprises, adding that in FCT, the programme has been domesticated and code named FCT-CARES.
There was a symbolic presentation of dud cheques to some beneficiaries.
