Yakubu Busari, Jos
At least no fewer than 30, 672 households in six out of 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau state have been captured for the purpose of benefiting soon from the Federal Government program on empowerment of pregnant women, the aged and vulnerable people in the society. The scheme attracts N5, 000 monthly stipends for beneficiaries.
According to the National Coordinator of the National Social Safety Net Programme, Mr Apera Iorwa ,during an interactive session with stakeholders at Plateau State Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA) in Jos, the 30, 672 households were made up of 77, 735 individuals – 35, 633 males and 42, 102 females who were captured in the state.
He said, “So far in the six local governments (in Plateau state) that we have started the capturing exercise, we enumerated 30, 672 households which make up about 77, 735 individuals, including husband, wife and the children.
“We have about 35, 633 males, 42, 102 females and out of these figures about 5, 403 were people living with disabilities.”
The six local governments that were captured so far included Bassa, Bokkos, Jos East, Kanke, Langtang North and Wase.
Mr Iowa assured that the selection process of capturing the household was transparent.
Iorwa said the meeting with the teams and staff of both CSDA is to give feedback to the people of Nigeria as “ we are making a huge progress plan to be in every community in Nigeria. So Plateau state is the first to be capture amongst the LGAs which is consider as pilot state in designing the programs to take off .
He praised the state coordinator for conducting training of 18 persons in 11 LGAs who were deployed to the field for data capturing.
Iorwa disclosed that crises-ridden state and those with IDPs camps would be given topmost priority in the implementation of the scheme.
The state coordinator, Dr S Hamza said Plateau state is “one of the fortunate state to commence the implementation of the scheme and urged the people to remain hopeful.
She said the program had received overwhelming support were people are showing interest to join the other vulnerable people in rural areas.
