FIC Report (Nasarawa State) – No fewer than 48, 000 poor and vulnerable households have so far benefited from the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer in Nasarawa State.
Mrs. Rhoda Agbawu, Nasarawa State Programme Manager, State Cash Transfer Office disclosed this at a Day Workshop on Community Sensitization and Awareness Creation for Beneficiaries on Friday in Lafia.
According to her, the workshop is organized to train Local Government Areas facilitators to go into communities to sensitize the beneficiaries of the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash in the state.
Mrs. Agbawu who was represented by the Head of Operations, State Cash Transfer Office, Mr. Usman Abubakar explained that most of the beneficiaries were having problems using their Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards.
“We called all the Local Government facilitators and the staff in the state to come for this workshop to receive this training to sensitize the beneficiaries on how to use their ATM cards.
“Some of the beneficiaries who collected the ATM card went and gave it to their children, some of them went and dumped it somewhere, so when they were being paid they started complaining about not seeing the money.
“The 229 facilitators we are training today, at the end of the training they will go back to their various communities and sensitized the beneficiaries on handling ATM cards, and also how to use the money to improve their lives,” she said.
Mr. Hussaini Musa, State Coordinator, Social Safety NET Programme, said the training of the Local Government facilitators was necessary given the change in the disbursement processes.
“If you could remember the federal government’s pledge to pay a stipend of 25, 000 for three tranches of instalment to the poor and vulnerable to cushion the hardship in the society.
“Before now the method of disbursement was through a customised debit card but now the beneficiaries are being paid directly to their bank account.
“So, now there is a need to sensitized them on this development, to tell them that this money that is coming to their account is from the federal government so that they can make judicial use of the money”, he explained.
Alh. Iskilu Sale, Training and Communication officer, Nasarawa State Cash Transfer Unit said the community facilitators were expected to use the knowledge gained from the workshop to sensitized the beneficiaries across the 13 local government areas.
“The Federal government National Cash Transfer Unit is targeting about 15 million households in Nigeria, and so far it has paid over 5.6 million households. In Nasarawa about 48, 000 households have benefited so far,” he stated.
Signed
Ari, Liman Aminu.
Head of Centre,
FIC, LAFIA.
