The Federal Government has commenced the disbursement of cash grants of N20,000 each to 2,219 poor and vulnerable persons in Bayelsa State.
The Minister, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, while performing the ceremony in Yenagoa on Friday, explained that the beneficiaries were drawn from the eight local government areas of the state.
According to her, “the gesture was Federal Government’s cash grant for vulnerable groups in the society and digitised payment for conditional cash transfer programme.”
She said the exercise was part of government’s efforts to consolidate the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), designed by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to effectively give a lifting hand to some poor and vulnerable citizens in the society.
Some 500 beneficiaries of the social intervention programme were empowered at the ceremony.
Addressing beneficiaries, Farouq noted that the grant for the vulnerable persons was introduced in 2020 with a national target of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.
The Minister said that the grant would be disbursed to 70 per cent of women, while the youths and persons with disabilities would share the remaining 30 per cent.
She urged beneficiaries to make good use of the grant to improve productive activities that would generate more income and improve their living standard.
The minister also appreciated the Bayelsa State government for partnering the Ministry to ensure that the NSIP is effectively implemented in the state.
A beneficiary of the programme, Mrs Pere Ebinade, expressed joy and thanked President Muhammed Buhari for the gesture, promising to invest the fund to revive her ailing business.
The event was also used to inaugurate the digitised payment for conditional cash transfers and to train a second stream of Independent Monitors to monitor the programme’s implementation in the state.