Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, on Monday, reviewed the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) based on the report of the first round of assessment of the programme implementation conducted by an independent verification agent and concluded that the programme had impacted over two million direct beneficiaries.
Prince Agba disclosed this in a keynote address at the maiden ministerial town hall meeting on NG-CARES in Abuja where he interacted with the direct beneficiaries of the programme from Kaduna, Niger, Kogi, FCT, Nasarawa and Benue States.
According to him, “In furtherance of effort to scale up its programme under the social protection agenda and to respond swiftly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government accessed a World Bank concessional loan in the sum of US$750 million on behalf of the 36 States and FCT to stimulate the local economy and increase households’ consumption among the poor and vulnerable segment of the society.
“To ensure that implementation of the NG-CARES Programme is fast tracked in line with the ESP and cognizant of the peculiarities of the country, each State and FCT were given the flexibility to select a minimum of 4 from the list of 11 Disbursement Linked Indicators. This flexibility seeks to improve the partnership between the States and Federal governments in the delivery of pro-poor interventions using existing platforms at the sub-National level.”
The minister said that the NG-CARES Programme was one of the policy options explored by the federal government to achieve these objectives, adding that “in about a year of full implementation, NG-CARES, I am pleased to note, has impacted over 2 million direct beneficiaries. This is based on the report of the first round of assessment of the Programme implementation conducted by an Independent Verification Agent.”
He saw that the town hall meeting was initiated by his ministry to promote open and transparent governance where citizens’ participatory engagement was further strengthened within the framework of President Buhari’s Government of social accountability.
Agba said he appreciated the visionary leadership of President Muhammed Buhari for providing the guiding vision and directing the mandate to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the period of 10 years.
According to him, “This is a noble agenda to which all the structures of Government at all levels are committed to and precisely this is one of the reasons why we are gathered here today.”
He recalled that the COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged many economies in the world had devastating consequences on the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable individuals, formal and informal businesses, especially Micro and Small businesses, and peasant farmers who relied on daily subsistence income to survive.
Agba said that to mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic and lay a solid foundation for a robust economic recovery, the Federal Government enunciated several policy measures under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), which was launched by President, Muhammadu Buhari in July 2020.
“The ESP laid out policy measures to mobilize funds and other resources to maintain macro-economic stability, stimulate oil and non-oil government revenues and reduce non-essential spending,” he said.
He restated the commitment by the Federal Government to restore the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable Nigerians, maintain food security and facilitate the recovery of MSEs.
Agba told the participants that one of President Buhari’s strategies was to intermittently meet with, and engage stakeholders as part of Government’s accountability to the citizens, explaining that the purpose, basically, was to hear, first-hand, “views of our people on government policies and programmes and to feel the pulse of Nation.”
“This interaction is even more imperative given the fact that NG-CARES Programme draws some of its beneficiaries from the National Social Register. It is important to enquire from you how effective is this approach as we seek the consolidation of the National Social Register as a major source of credible data for social protection intervention in the country.
“My fellow Citizens, the Government of Nigeria will listen to you and let me assure you that your views and contributions will be invaluable in our effort to build a socially-inclusive nation. We would not rest on our oars in reaching out to Nigerians. The Buhari-led administration will continue to strive and deliver developments to Nigerians even if it has only a few seconds to hand over to the next administration.
“This Town Hall meeting, therefore, provides an opportunity for both government and the citizens to interact with a view to increasing better governance and participatory democracy. The outcome of this interaction would form part of what this present government will hand over to the incoming Government.
National Coordinator of NG-CARES, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje explained in a brief that he presented to set the tone for the meeting that the programme was a multi-sectoral one designed to provide immediate emergency relief to the vulnerable and poor Nigerians, smallholder farmers and SMEs that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Obaje said that the World Bank loan of $750 million was for a period of two years (2021-2023) and the intervention allocation to each state was $20 million ex-ante and $15 million the FCT for the Federal CARES Support Unit (FCSU)
According to him, “the programme covers three results areas with eleven disbursement linked indicators (DLI) interventions which are selected by the states.
“Reimbursed earnings by the states and FCT is a product of DLI price for each DLI and number of validated beneficiaries achieved.”
Obaje stated that the town hall meeting was the first in the series of the ministerial town hall meetings, which had been scheduled to hold in eight other locations across the country.”
He reviewed the performance in first result verification, pointing out that in addition to the two million people and firm that had directly and indirectly benefitted from the programme interventions, 35 states and FCT had earned N77 billion (US$168 million) and 27 percent of the credit portfolio drawdown.
He said that the on the basis of earnings, Zamfara state ranked first, earning N5,273 billion with 70,835 beneficiaries, followed by Bauchi and Ondo States that earned N4.232 billion with 43,069 and n3,838 billion with 56,161 beneficiaries respectively.
“Results indicated that Results Area 1 recorded 25,414 beneficiaries as Social Transfer to the vulnerable, 27,442 beneficiaries as stipends under Labor Intensive Public Works for unemployed youths and 18,078 beneficiaries got grants as livelihood support.
“Also, 578,348 direct beneficiaries were identified for provision of Basic Services infrastructure in education, health, nutrition and water and sanitation sectors,” he added.
In his welcome address, Chairman of Federal CARES Technical Committee of the NG-CARES, Mr Aso Vakporaye, said that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government of Nigeria, in its proactive posture, developed the Economic Sustainability Plan, which inspired the preparation and eventual implementation of the NG-CARES programme in the 36 states and FCT
“We are proud that the programme ha recorded tangible results ad has positively affected so many poor and vulnerable Nigerians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and other shocks across the country,” he stated.
World bank Lead Specialist, Social Protection and Task Team Leader for NG-CARES, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa said that the meeting was for the minister to listen to the beneficiaries and the implementing agencies speak to enable him assess whether the programme was going in the direction he had wished.
Okunmadewa said that the World Bank had agreed to extend the closing date of the programme by additional twelve months beginning from June 2023, the initial expiration date, adding that the Bank was ready to assist the government of Nigeria.
No fewer than 15 beneficiaries gave testimonies of how the programme had positively impacted their lives and businesses.
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