Some beneficiaries-of-Cash-Transfer-Programme

Kogi State Government through the Office of the National Social Investment Programmes (Kogi-SIP) is set to commence payment of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) to poor and vulnerable people across the state. The State is also to begin a model trial of the school feeding programme. These are parts of measures by the federal government to curtail the impacts of the lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Focal Person of Kogi SIP, Hon. Abdulkareem Suleiman Onyekehi, disclosed this in a press statement in Lokoja. He said the first phase of payments is scheduled to commence from Monday 6th to 22nd April and will cover Four Months payout of N20,000 (N5000 monthly) each to over 34,000 existing beneficiaries of the CCT across the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State.

Onyekehi assured that the next phase of payments would capture another 27,000 people as contained in the fresh data, bringing the total beneficiaries of the CCT to over 60,000 in Kogi State.

President Muhammodu Buhari had during a national broadcast on the Coronavirus hinted at government’s plans to provide parliatives for the citizens as the country battles against the virus. Onyekehi disclosed that the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs took swift action based on the President’s address.

The focal person further said that the school feeding program for pupils of public primary school across the state would commence any moment as soon as the officials of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) concluded plans for the implementation amidst the lockdown.

Onyekehi said that the school pupils who had been directed to stay off school since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Nigeria would continue to enjoy the feeding programme through delivery of meals in a community based model at wards level in coordinated distancing clusters under close supervision and monitoring.

The News reports that although the state is yet to record any confirmed case of the virus, it has taken proactive steps including total lockdown, to prevent it’s entry and spread.