A total of 1,600 persons living with a disability (PLWD) in 16 local government areas of Kwara state will benefit from the three-month federal government’s special public works programme.
Speaking with journalists after an interactive meeting with leaders of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disability in Ilorin on Wednesday, Oluwasegun Oyewo, the state committee chairman of the programme, explained that the 1,600 population of the PLWD is 10 per cent of a total of 16,000 beneficiaries of the programme, with 1,000 beneficiaries each in every local government area of the state.
Oyewo, who said that beneficiaries should be of 18 and 50 years of age, added that literates should also form 20 per cent of the beneficiaries who shall be record programmers while 30 per cent of the recruits would be women.
He also said that beneficiaries do not necessarily have to be indigenes of the state, but residents, adding that services to be rendered by the beneficiaries do not require any special skills.
READ ALSO: Rainstorm wreck havoc in Kwara state
Oyewo informed that the programme would run between October and December 2020, saying that beneficiaries would be given N20,000 per month.
He clarified that the beneficiaries who should be poorest of the poor in each of the local government areas of the state would be made to clear drainages, monitor or repair government buildings, and so on.
Also speaking, the representative of the Emir of Ilorin, Alh Ibrahim Sulu- Gambari in the committee, Salihu Agboola Balogun said that the monarch recognized the contribution of PLWD in the state and associated and cares for their wellbeing.
He praised President Muhammadu Buhari for providing jobs for 774,000 Nigerian youths through the scheme which he described as laudable.
READ ALSO: Kwara governor strengthens security architecture with 2 new appointments
Balogun assured that the PLWD would be carried along throughout the duration of the work to ensure effectiveness.
Also, the chairman of the PLWD in the state, Yusuf Bashiru, expressed appreciation to President Buhari for including them among the prospective beneficiaries of the scheme.
Bashiru disclosed that members of the group are made up of educated and skilled people, just as he says that they have resolved not to beg for a living.
