Edo trains facilitators, as 11,000 persons benefit in first phase

No fewer than 11,000 persons in Edo State are to benefit from the first phase of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme being implemented by the Federal Government under the National Social Investment Programme (SIP).

Focal person, Edo State Social Investment Programme, Osayuwame Aladeselu, disclosed this at the beginning of a four-day Orientation, Implementation and Enrolment Training workshop for local government councils’ Cash Transfer Facilitators (CTFs) in Benin City, the Edo State capital. The training of the facilitators marks the commencement of the CCT programme in the state.

Aladeselu noted that 11,000 beneficiaries drawn from six local government areas would be trained on livelihood skills to assist them spend the money wisely, adding, “We just commenced the CCT programme in Edo State with the training of facilitators drawn from the benefiting LGAs, who will sensitise the beneficiaries on the electronic means of money transfer.”

The facilitators will also train beneficiaries on business opportunities, urging them to take the programme seriously, she said.
She explained that the poverty map developed by the World Bank was used in the selection of the six local government areas from where beneficiaries for the first phase of the programme will be drawn.
National programme coordinator, CCT programme, Temitope Sinkaiye, said the programme was designed to reduce poverty and socioeconomic vulnerabilities among poor households in the country.

Sinkaiye maintained that the facilitators were being trained on how to use mobile application for enrolment of the CCT beneficiaries.
She added that the N5,000 monthly stipends would be paid electronically to the beneficiaries through mobile money operators residing in rural communities.

Vice chairman of Edo State Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and chairman, Etsako Central LGA, Akhigbe John, commended the federal and state governments for supporting the local government councils to alleviate the plights of vulnerable persons. He assured that local council chairmen in the state would support the initiative to ensure it succeeds in the state.