From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Prince Abdulkareem Suleiman Onyekehi, the Focal Person of National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) Kogi State, said the Federal Government had injected over N17 billion into the state’s economy through the programme since its inception in 2016.
Onyekehi told our Correspondent at the weekend in Lokoja, that the NSIP has four components which include: N-POWER, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT), and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), being implemented in Kogi State.
Onyekehi, who doubles as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, said that over 43, 000 petty traders have benefited from the GEEP, over 34,000 beneficiaries of CCT, over 12,000 for NPower and about 85, 000 pupils for HGSFP, have benefited in the State through the programme.
According to him, approximately N297 million has been injected through HGSFP, N800 million through GEEP, N5 billion through CCT, and N12 billion through NPower into Kogi economy via the programme.
”The Federal Government of Nigeria established the NSIP in 2016, to tackle poverty and hunger across the country.
”The suite of programme under the NSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth and women.
”Kogi State keyed into the programme in partnership and have developed enormous capacity for the implementation across all the components.
”The Kogi State Government secured a befitting office complex for NSIP, funding sensitization and implementation logistics as well as payment of SIP staff salaries”, he said.
He said that the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) was aimed to deliver school feeding to public primary school pupils with a specific focus on increasing school enrolment and reducing malnutrition.
He added that the HGSFP was also designed to empowering community women as cooks and by supporting farmers that help stimulate economic growth.
The focal person explained that the HGSFP had been on pilot stage in Kogi, had engaged about 1,400 caterers to feed the current number of over 85,000 pupils.
He added that additional caterers were being recruited in order to capture more public primary schools to accommodate more pupils who were yet to benefit from the scheme.
He said that the HGSFP commenced in Kogi State in February 18, 2019 up to January 16, 2020, and was in progress before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic, which made the programme to be put on hold till date.
”Currently, we have captured 177, 640 pupils to be fed by 2,937 cooks.
”Concerted efforts are in high gear to capture all public primary schools in Kogi State with a total of over 258,000 pupils as recently validated by the National Bureau of Statistics.
”However, newly modified COVID-19 tagged Take Home Rations (THRs) which was anxiously expected to have commenced, having carried out adequate sensitization and high level of preparedness is yet to commence in Kogi State”, Onyekehi said.
He added that the current food menu for the HGSFP given to the pupils were: rice, beans, pasta, egg, bread, beef, moimoi and pap.
”The GEEP is a micro-lending intervention that targets traders, artisans, enterprising youth, farmers and women in particular, by providing loans between N10,000, N50,000, N100,000 and N300,000 at zero interest cost to beneficiaries.
”In Kogi State, over 50,000 SMEs have benefited from the GEEP, such as Trader-moni, N10,000; and Market-Moni between N50,000 -100,000 at zero interest loan.
He said that a total sum of about N800 million had so far been disbursed to 50,441 beneficiaries of both Trader-moni and Market-moni in Kogi State.
He explained that a total sum of N434.4 million had been disbursed to 43,443 beneficiaries under Trader-moni, while N365.2 million disbursed to 6,998 beneficiaries under Market-moni in Kogi State.
He, however noted that the newly introduced Farmer-Moni of N300,000 wi
[17:42, 03/07/2021] Joe Ahmedu: Police Arrests 2 Powerline Thieves In Kogi.
From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Kogi state police command Saturday arrested two suspected electricity power line thieves along Igarra -Edo- Okenwe Road in Kogi state.
In a press release signed by the command public relations officer, William Ovye Aya and made available to Journalists in Lokoja, said the officers attached to Akpafa Division of Ogori Magongo LGA had at 430am on the 2nd July, 2021 intercepted a Peugeot Boxer with registration number DKA 447ZY Kaduna loaded with an RMU transformer, three copper armoured cables with inscription BEDC Edo state.
The statement disclosed that the officers on routine patrol accosted the seven occupants of the vehicle for relevant papers of the equipment which they failed to…
