From WILLIE ATTAH, Gombe
DR Fanen Ade, a Social Protection Specialist with the World Bank, has rated Gombe State high in the implementation of its programme aimed at lifting poor and vulnerable people out of poverty.
Dr Fanen gave the commendation in an interview on the sidelines of a Northeast zonal stakeholders consultative meeting on the review of Independent Verification Agent (IVA) performance under the NG-CARES programme.
The NG-CARES programme phase 1.0, which ends by the end of 2025, commenced shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to the economic hardship by the people, particularly the vulnerable poor of the society.
With high hopes of commencing phase 2.0 by next year, the clamour for Gombe State to key into the programme again is rising following its success in phase 1.0.
According to Dr Ade, “positively touching the lives of about 650,000 people is not a small achievement,” stressing that Gombe was one of the highest performing states as over N40 billion had been expended on the people to
help them buy food, send children to school, pay medical bills, improve farming viability and community infrastructures such as building schools and hospitals.
He assured that the next phase would focus on building institutions and systems, that is, creating systems that would target the poor.
Chairman, Federal Care Technical Committee with NG-CARES, Malam Auwal Mohammed, who is also a Director in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, explained that the essence of the meeting was to review the performance of the implementation of the
Independent Verification Agent.
He explained further that, “We have what we call P and R, that is, Performance and Results. It is what you put that you are reimbursed with. We urge the governors to invest in NG-CARES because it is a very good programme that will really lift a lot of people out of poverty, especially the downtrodden.”
He added, “If you look at the rate of poverty in the northeast, it is really high, so if we enhance this NG-CARES programme, I’m sure it will alleviate a lot of people out of poverty.”
Malam Haruna Imam, Gombe State coordinator of the programme, explained that the project had impacted 648,000 lives since 2022 in Gombe State in many livelihood sectors.
He commended the Inuwa Yahaya led state government for keying into the programme by successfully executing it in the state.
He said, “He has been taking the programme very seriously.”
Among the stakeholders that participated in the meeting were beneficiaries who expressed joy over the impact of the programme in uplifting their livelihood.
They called on government for more interventions to the people through such programmes.