The Nasarawa State Social Investment Agency has said 6000 people will benefit from the second phase of the state government’s cash transfer programme.
Director General of the Agency, Imran Usman, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in the Keffi Local Government Area of the state on Thursday after the disbursement of the funds to some beneficiaries in the area.
According to Mr Usman, N7, 000 each is the current cash transfer amount to the most vulnerable residents across the 13 local government area of the state on a monthly basis.
He said, “This is the 15 phase and the programme is supposed to last for 24 months. As you can see, we are really doing well with the programme. Now the recipients are given N7,000 monthly against the N5, 000 transfer when the programme commenced.”
He explained that one of the reasons for the gesture was to encourage beneficiaries to use the funds to start petty businesses and be self-reliant.
He stated, “I can tell you that we have lots of success stories in that regard. We have also introduced a monitoring mechanism where we try to go round and see who and who are doing well with their petty businesses. We give them source of encouragement and a token of N50, 000, N30, 000 depending on availability of funds to further motivate them.’’
The director general noted that in the programme’s first phase during the first tenure of Governor Abdullahi Sule administration, the number of beneficiaries was 3800 and each beneficiary got N5, 000.
He said, “Now we have 6000 beneficiaries and we are giving them N7, 000 each. So far so good, the process has been hitch free and transparent. I really appreciate the governor for being a caring and prudent leader, someone who keeps to his word and has never failed the beneficiaries. Surprisingly you will think N7, 000 is insignificant but to those beneficiaries it means a lot to them. We have poor aged ones. We have widows who depend on it to cater for their children. So it’s really encouraging and we are ever grateful to Allah and the state governor.’’
(NAN)
