Nasarawa NG-CARES surpassed its target of 100,000 beneficiaries in 2024 – Coordinator

Umar Ibrahim Dahiru, Nasarawa State Coordinator, Nigeria Community Action Resilience and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) has said that the first phase of the project, which is expected to end by June this year has impacted over one hundred thousand beneficiaries across 400 communities in the state. He is hopeful that Nasarawa State will scale through the second phase of the project due to its performances in project implementation, accountability and transparency in resources management. In this interview, Umar spoke on a number of issues. NATHANIEL GBAORON brings the excerpts:

Review your activities in 2024, giving the challenges that confronted Nigerians, how were you able to attain the objectives of the programme in the state?

For us, 2024 was a challenging year, from the effect of fuel subsidy and inflation that beat Nigerians to stupor. But again, 2024 was one of the biggest years of this programme, because in the year under review, we reached more than 800,000 beneficiaries, and that is the biggest we have ever done since we started the programme. So, for us it is a good year, yet challenging. We all know that challenges always bring opportunities and that is what we have used. For the year 2024, we have reached more than 400 communities by the community and social development agencies. We have also constructed more than 13 roads spanning 10 km each in all the local governments within the year under review. We also did culverts for the 26 roads we had earlier constructed and provided drainages for those roads so that the road will be more sustainable. And in all of these activities, including the Cash Transfer programme to vulnerable individuals and the public works that we do support young men and women, including the rural market infrastructures that we do, where perishables are been sold, including the assets that we give and also the inputs: fertilizer, seedlings and chemicals. We reached 800,000 under the year 2024. At the end of the year, we had to organize a retreat to say, let’s look back, what we have done well, what we have not done well. What is our goal for 2025. In terms of reaching the communities, we did well in 2024, that is one of the key lessons that we learnt. We also learnt that, there are some safeguard issues, issues that have to do with gender-based violence that happen in communities that were not really reported. We had to look for a way to correct those wrongs, we get more GBV reported, more social and environmental issues reported and so on. These are some of the things we want to do this year. We have started the year with two trainings to our officers so that they can handle GBV and grievance issues at the community level.

We also want to look at the sustainability of this project that we are implementing. Yes! It is good enough that we are doing a lot of projects, but are we looking at the sustainability, that even if the project winds up, we will still come back to look at the viability, how communities are receiving the project so that it can be sustainable.

You may be aware that the first phase of the programme is coming to a close. It was supposed to be an emergency programme, it started in 2020, an aftermath of the COVID-19, but the impact was so good that they had to change the name of the programme from COVID-19 to Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus. The programme is already billed for another phase, and in it, they are not looking at all states, but states that are really interested in making an impact. And you know that NG-CARES has made a lot of impact in Nasarawa State, so we want to continue to enjoy those impact. This year we are targeting joining other states that will qualify for the next phase of the programme. We are trying to see how we will qualify the state for the next programme. The programme might end by June 2025, and maybe the next programme might succeed as soon as possible. We want to ensure that Nasarawa State is part of the second phase of the programme. What we are looking at for 2025 having had a review of what happened in 2024. All of these successes are as a result of the support of His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, because he wants to bring development to the rural communities. He is not just doing it, he cares about the rural communities. Whatever he’s doing in the urban areas, is also doing it in the rural areas, the roads, renovating schools and hospitals, and good drinking water. The governor is about governance and he will continue to support the programme.

Looking at the impacts, the number of people and communities reached, that earned you bonuses, how much grants were you able to access to achieve all these?

I don’t really like talking about financials, because it has brought some bad attention to the programme. I think it is better we talk about the impact, what we have done under this programme. So far, we’ve done four assessments, we did the assessment and we were 27 on the list across the country and we got some funds for the state and we use those funding, made a lot of impacts, reached about hundred thousand beneficiaries, we were able to attract a lot of money, that made us to become first in the country, but 10 percent for that reimbursement for that period and we are first. That is for the second assessment. And then, we went into the third assessment, having got that funding, we got more impacts, we reached around two hundred thousand individuals and we got funding also, which was even higher than the second assessment funding and we came second best performing states in the country. This time around with more impacts, and that funding alone, we reached more than 700,000 beneficiaries, which all culminated in the 800,000 beneficiaries in 2024. Overall, we are looking at 1.2 individuals that benefited directly in the programme, which is huge looking at the population of Nasarawa State. It means that, we have reached a lot of people with the resources the state government is getting and you know, it just speaks to the vision of the Governor and what is telling us to do, to focus on agriculture, which is one of the biggest sectors and that is why we were able to reach so many people, because about 80 percent of our population are into agriculture and of course, they enjoyed dividends of what we were doing and also livelihood support. It was a very good and successful programme for Nasarawa State and we want to continue to enjoy that, so that our people will be lifted out of their misery.

Should we say that, by the mandate the project has achieved its desired result?

Fantastically! When we had a retreat, we were looking at what we had done in 2024. The programme target was around One Hundred Thousand beneficiaries and USD20 millions for the state. Look! By the assessment we have surpassed that. We have double that almost three times and in terms of beneficiaries, we are talking about 1.2 million as against one hundred. You can see the gap is almost like a 12 percent increase in terms of what we have done. We really did well to surpass the target, the expectation of the programme and we want to continue to do more for our people. We have gone to the field; we have seen the impact the programme is really making. I was in a very remote community called Dausu, I went there, I saw the school renovated by the CSDA project. I also saw the road and borehole, and the road connecting Umaisha to Dausu. The road was not motorable before now. These are some of the things that make us so happy and we will continue to do that hopefully.

Your activities at some quarters were viewed by some sections of the state as politically motivated, considering the spread of projects across communities. How do you respond to such allegation?

First of all, I think once you get elected, the politics and governance start, and I doubt if His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi Sule is one that is more politically inclined than governing the state. He does that without any bias and we are taking a cue from him. We received all our processes, they are very transparent, they are not tinted by any political interest or infusion if I may say. Take for instance, the communities for CSDA, if you want to do a community project, you will have to write an expression of interest for your community. We cannot even intervene in any community without that expression of interest and it only goes to the deserving communities. We use what we call the poverty map, that is what we use to select the communities that are more deserving to go into this. Saying that it is political, I don’t think it’s the right thing to say, is just a perspective that people have, but I believe that, if you write, if we come and access your community and it is deserving, you will see your project come to your community. Nobody selects any community anywhere; it’s just giving to deserving communities based on our mode of operation.

Can you throw more light on the criteria for the project to benefit communities?

What we do is, there is a community ranking, that ranks the community according to poverty and others, and it is within that ranking that. If a community expresses interest and it is within that ranking, we selected that community. Is called community ranking and is deeper than just a poverty map. Poverty mapping is just saying identifying which areas are more poor. Then community ranking goes down to say, every community, list them let’s see them. That is why you will hardly see our projects in the main town. We go into rural or hard to reach areas, because those areas are the most deserving.

The first phase of the project will be ending by June this year. What will you attribute as the successes recorded so far?

The major success we have recorded in this first phase is that we have reached many beneficiaries, using little resources. We are so proud of the beneficiaries that we have reached and we have got that recognition even from the National Office of NG-CARES and we have received not less than two National Awards for what we were doing. We believe that at the end of the programme, we would be like the frontier in terms of the whole project result. We will be the No. 1 state in terms of the programme. I think that is a very success story for us. Secondly, having an excellent team work, because we have now made every platform, every MDAs that is into NG-CARES work more efficiently. I recall that, before we started this programme, CSDA for instance had suffered three World Bank suspension. That is not the case now. No platform has gone into suspense since we came. Even the Conditional Cash Transfer was also suspended before we came on board, the Fadama Office was moribund, we had to resuscitate it through Governor Abdullahi Sule’s effort. We now have a perfect implementing agencies to deliver results for the state and they are really working very well to maintain the status the state has attained.

What are we looking at in the second phase should Nasarawa State scale through?

More impacts, more reach to communities, better project in terms of sustainability.

How do you manage resources in this project to achieve probity?

You need a lot of accountability, you need a lot of transparency, you need a lot of integrity to be able to manage this kind of resources. One thing of note is that, we will all stand before God to give account of all that was entrusted under our care, to account for everything. For me, is a generational burden I carry as a young man from the youth constituency, and I have been given this huge responsibility. I have the generational burden to uphold the integrity, because, if we can justify that, more youths will get opportunities of this kind of responsibility. It also speaks to the Governor, as you know, the Governor has the mandate of selecting the best people to do the best jobs. This is what we are doing. We are accountable and transparent about everything. Our account has undergone external audit and we do not have anything to hide. Our beneficiaries are open to people to access and to see, our project are evident on ground for all to see. So, we just trying to be transparent, accountable, prudent in our expenditures and also to uphold the integrity of public office, which is important for us here.

Working with Engr. Abdullahi Sule for about 5-years now, how do you rate the performance of the governor?

I think as a state we are doing well. We are a baby and a poor State in term of resources, but Engr. Abdullahi Sule has been prudent, using the little resources to do the utmost best to the people. And we are a potential state and you can see the investments he’s attracting to the state. Because he’s from the private sector, and those in that sector always go to where businesses are easy for them to do, and His Excellency, Engr Abdullahi Sule is making it easy. He has provided investment friendly policies that is encouraging investors to come and do business and invest, with the establishment of NASIDA, engaging with the businesses themselves. Recently, the governor went to China to woo investment and got commitment on tantalite in addition to the lithium commitment that are in the state. After the one stop shop, the governor provided the infrastructure, where the investors need access road, electricity and other things that makes investors not only comfortable for them to put their money in the state. We need that because in terms of federal allocation, we are one of the least states on the list, so, we need to think out of the box. How can our IGR move on. If you bring people to spend their own money and to utilize what we get in the best way possible, and I think that is what the Governor is doing. The governor’s keen interest in agriculture is also yielding positive result. This is the only sector that has impacted positively on the lives of the people, through the investment in Jangwa and Angwatashi rice farm, Saro Africa, Azama, Dangote and the likes helps in boosting agriculture activities in the state. So, the governor is a very visionary leader and that is the reason we are here. We are proud of what the Governor is doing. I believe Nasarawa State is in the right track, on good trajectory engineering Nasarawa State to an enviable state and pray it gets better. We are very lucky to have Governor Abdullahi Sule.