Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta says no fewer than 1.2 million persons have indirectly been impacted by the Nigeria Community Action Resilience and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) in the state.
Oborevwori made the disclosure on Tuesday at the NG-CARES, ‘South -South Independent Verification Agents (IVA) Performance Review Meeting’ in Asaba.
Available data indicated that the Federal Cares Support Unit (FCSU)- NG-CARES, a World Bank Supported programme, has impacted no fewer than 17 million people nationally since inception in 2021.
The day’s event had participants drawn from the South-South states of Rivers, Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Delta.
The governor represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Kingsley Emu, thanked the World Bank, Federal Government and other key stakeholders for the initiative that had greatly impacted the people of the state.
According to him, the NG-CARES Programme was initially conceived as an emergency intervention to support state governments in addressing the socio-economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“However, this initiative has since demonstrated its effectiveness as a robust platform for addressing broader economic shocks and its impact in Delta especially cannot be overemphasized.
“As one of our flagship programmes, the NG-CARES has significantly impacted on the lives of our residents especially in the areas of poverty reduction, economic growth and social development.
“We are glad to state that in Delta we have impacted 306,177 direct beneficiaries and more than 1.2 million indirect beneficiaries thus far.
“We are looking forward to increasing the numbers and strengthening the intervention horizontally and vertically as we proceed to the next phase of NG-CARES 2.0.”
Oborevwori noted that the IVA performance review was critical to defining the next phase of the programme which was geared towards addressing the needs of most vulnerable in local communities through social infrastructure.
“A key feature of this next phase is the community action approach, which empowers communities to drive the programme from the ground up.
“This ensures that interventions meet the real needs of local people, the most vulnerable are reached, and communities take ownership of projects like building and rehabilitating social infrastructure.
“Also by putting communities at the heart of planning and implementation, NG-CARES will deliver deeper impact, stronger accountability, and more sustainable development at the grassroots level,” he said.
He added that the IVA played crucial role in intervention programmes by providing unbiased and objective assessment of programmes.
“So, evaluating the effectiveness, credibility and impact of the Independent Verification Agents under NG-CARES1.0 will be a welcome development,” Oborevwori said.
He lauded the World Bank partnership for adding to the state’s successes, saying that the programme aligned perfectly with the M.O.R.E Agenda of his administration, which was focused on creating opportunities for all and enhancing social services.
“Our commitment to social welfare, as a key pillar of the M.O.R.E Agenda, is evident in several landmark initiatives. Recently, we launched the Widows’ Welfare Scheme, which provides financial and healthcare support to 10,000 widows across the state,” he added.
In his remarks, the World Bank Task Team Leader, Dr Lire Ersado, said that about 700 million Dollars was the support by World Bank for the programme nationally, while the states have spent about 2.2 billion dollars nationally for the programme.
He said that the states were financing the programmes on their own in partnership with the World Bank, adding that Delta was putting much more resources to finance the programme.
He noted that the reason for the IVA review was to ensure that the programme reached out to the right beneficiaries in the states, adding that verification outcome would determine the launch to level 2.0 of the programme.
“The performance review is to see if we have the right partners and that whatever services we are providing is having the right impact on the right people,” Ersado said.
He charged the participants to speak out and to provide all necessary evidence that would help at the all stakeholders meeting holding in Abuja.
In their separate remarks, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu and the National Coordinator, NG-CARES Programme, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, represented, tasked stakeholders to evaluate justify and ensure the objectives of NG-CARES are realised.
The Coordinator of the Programme in Delta, Dr Patience Ogbewe, in her opening remarks said the review process was also taking place in Nasaraw and Kebbi states simultaneously.
She urged the stakeholders to engage constructively, adding that four rounds of assessments had been conducted on the programme.