From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin
The federal government has trained 78 facilitators in Edo State that would drive financial inclusion across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
They were trained on Savings and Group Mobilsation (SGM) for the National Cash Transfer beneficiaries in Edo.
The criteria for selecting beneficiaries is dependent on community leaders who identifies the poorest among them after which a monthly stipends of N5,000 would be disbursed to them.
The programme which was established in 2016 to tackle poverty and hunger, focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations including children, youth and women.
The State Head of the Cash Transfer Unit, Mr Sunday Erhunmwonsere, said about 10,705 poor and vulnerable household have so far been identified and enrolled to benefit from the programme adding that, identification and enrollment were still ongoing.
He noted that conditional cash transfer to enrolled beneficiaries would commenced as soon as all necessary processes were completed.
Six local government areas in the state had been selected to participate in the pilot stage of the programme in Edo.
He listed the local government areas to include Oredo, Igueben, Owan East, Ovia South West, Estako Central and Esan West.
“This SGM training is the 5th training to be conducted for the Local Government cash transfer facilitators(CTF) and were trained by NCTO in the State. It is to enhance and ensure maximum efficiency in the programme,” he said.
The National Training officer, Mr Solomon Kola, was conducted by the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) in collaboration with State Cash Transfer Unit in the state.
He had assured the facilitators after being trained would go to their various wards and train beneficiaries of the national cash transfer programme.
Kola said the objective of the training was to improve beneficiaries knowledge and skills in savings and mobilisation as well as group formation and management.
“The cash transfer programme is also known as household uplifting programme because it is targeted at the poor and vulnerable in the Country”, he said.
According to Kola, the beneficiaries will receive the monthly stipends for three years. The federal government has also provided capacity building for them within the period.
He also explained that about 26 states were currently participating in the the programme .
The National Cash Transfer Programme is one of the five components of the Federal Government Social Investment Programme (NSIP) targeted at eradicating poverty across the country.
