No fewer than 10,705 poor and vulnerable households in Edo State are to benefit from the Federal Government’s N5,000 stipend in three years.
The stipend was under the National Cash Transfer Programme of the Federal Government.
Sunday Erhunmwonsere, Edo State, head of Cash Transfer Unit, made the disclosure at the training of 78 local governments cash transfer facilitators on Wednesday in Benin City.
Erhunmwonsere, who said the people have so far enrolled to benefit from the programme, noted that identification and enrolment were still ongoing.
He said the programme was established in 2016 to tackle poverty and hunger as well as focus on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth and women.
Six local government areas have been selected to participate in the pilot stage of the programme in the state.
He listed the local governments to include Oredo, Igueben, Owan East, Ovia South West, Estako Central and Esan West.
“This Saving Group and Mobilisation (SGM) training is the fifth training to be conducted for the local government cash transfer facilitators (CTF) and were trained by NCTO in the state. It is to enhance and ensure maximum efficiency in the programme,” he said.
He noted that the conditional cash transfer to beneficiaries would commence as soon as all the necessary processes were completed, saying the transfer programme was one of the five components of the Federal Government Social Investment Programme (NSIP) targeted at eradicating poverty across the country.
In his remark, Solomon Kola, the national training officer of the programme, said no less than 78 Local Governments Cash Transfer Facilitators were being trained on savings and Group Mobilisation (SGM) for the National Cash Transfer Beneficiaries in the state.
Kola said the training was conducted by the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) in collaboration with State Cash Transfer Unit in the state.
According to Kola, the beneficiaries will receive the monthly stipends for three years. The Federal Government has also provided capacity building for them within the period.
