127,753 Kaduna residents captured in Rapid Response Register – Official

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

127,753 persons  from 33 wards spread across seventeen  Local Government Areas of kaduna state will be  captured to receive a monthly cash transfer of  five thousand  Naira each for a period of six months in the Rapid Response Register (RRR)

The  Focal  Person  Kaduna Social Investment Office (KADSIO),Saude Amina Atoyebi disclosed this during the flagging

Of  the COVID-19  Rapid Response Register (RRR)  in Igabi Local Government Secretariat yesterday.

Mrs Atoyebi who was represented by Head of Unit, Conditional Cash Transfer Office Hajia Hauwa Abdulrazaq said that the target beneficiaries are “self-employed”, “wage employed” and “urban poor.”

Mrs Atoyebi explained  that about 85,168 persons will benefit from the 2 million share of world bank’s RRR and 42,584 from the 1 million Federal Government’s share of the RRR, thus summing up to a total of over 127,753 persons who will receive a monthly cash transfer of 5,000 naira each for a period of 6 months.

She added that as part of the Covid-19 intervention  there are a state-based initiatives such as the free education program up to the end of secondary school, women empowerment fund, health insurance scheme, 6 months paid maternity leave, agricultural interventions to smallholder farmers, and free medical treatment for children under five,

“Kaduna State Government is committed to building a highly robust and functional social protection sector.” She said

Speaking earlier, the State Coordinator Kaduna State Operations Coordinating Unit Coordinator (KADSOCU) Dawong Nina Yakwal said federal government is giving the low-income earners the money under the Rapid Response Register (RRR) and beneficiaries will receive the stipend for six months.

Dawong explained that the set of vulnerable people were not captured in the National Social Register (NSR).

“The RRR is designed to focus mainly on the urban poor wards selected using scientifically validated methods of satellite remote sensing technology, machine learning algorithm and big data analysis.

“This social protection method of targeting is the first strategy to be developed and tested in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and kaduna state is lucky to have 33 wards across 17 LGAs benefitting from it”

“With the RRR, which uses a wholly technology-based approach, we are primed to achieve an end-to-end digital foot-print in cash transfers for the urban poor; which also helps us achieve  financial inclusion policy under the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access programme (EFInA).

In his remarks, Commissioner of Budget and Planning Timothy Gayang, said there is a need for the government to ameliorate hardship of low-income earners in urban areas, saying experience during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced this position, especially given the requirement of the COVID-19 protocols, as well as inability to immediately reach the urban poor impacted by the pandemic.