Adejoke Adeleye Ogun
The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to give relief packages in order to bring relief to the victims of flood in Isheri in Ifo Local government of Ogun state.
FG through the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu during her visit to the state on Friday for an on the spot assessment of the flood areas, said the visit will afford her the opportunity to also update the state’s social register so that beneficiaries can start receiving the N25,000 conditional cash transfer.
“My mission is simple. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is concerned about the flooding and situation that has affected parts of Ogun and Lagos States. I’m here to provide humanitarian support and response to those who have been affected by flooding.
“Of course, I have seen videos and pictures of the areas that have been affected by flood. We will be there first thing in the morning tomorrow to see things for and of course take good steps on a number of persons that have been affected and how we can immediately support them. We came with a lot of relief materials which will be given to them.
“The second purpose why I’m here, is to ensure that we can have an update of Ogun State social register, which feeds into the National Social Register so they can begin to receive the N25,000 conditional cash transfer which has already started in several other states.
“The Governor set up an inter-ministerial team that have been working and need to do verification of beneficiaries of this conditional cash transfer, and they have been working with the National team to vet the register and ensure that they have BVN, NIN and they can verify their houses; this will enable payment to go out at once to beneficiaries from Ogun State”, Edu said
The Minister further reteraited that the Ministry had mapped out immediate intervention in the state, which, according to her includes supports for market women and men. She added that it intended to take about 50 million people out of poverty within the next 42 months.
“Beyond this, we have been able to carefully map out immediate intervention that will be carried out in Ogun State. Some are designed specifically for Ogun State, like the ADIRE scheme through which we want to support women and men to produce it. That is from inception to the final products that can be sold in international markets and of course link them up to where they can sell; this is part our plans to lift them from poverty.
“We also have the GEEP Programme which is market and trader money as well as farmers money.
“Remember that GEEP is a zero interest rate loan to these persons, but the grant will also be supporting a programme and scheme which is already being implemented here in Ogun State.
“All of this is targeted at seeing that we can achieve the President’s instruction of getting 50 million people out of poverty within the next 42months while we work towards getting every single person out of poverty by 2030 in line with the SDG goals”, she added