The Federal Government Social Investment Programme (SÍP) in Kogi State has assured that it will be transparent, not corrupt and will discharge its duties without fear or favour.
Focal Person of the programme in Kogi State Ibrahim Adoga, who is also the Special Adviser to Governor Yahaya Bello on Multilateral Donor Agencies and Special Projects, told journalists in Lokoja, that the SIP has zero tolerance for corruption and cannot be influenced by any politician.
The Federal Government SIP comprised of five thematic areas which includes: Npower for unemployed graduates, Conditional Cash Transfer for the poorest, Government Enterprises and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) for traders, Home Grown School Feeding for public school pupils, and the STEM.
Reacting to the allegation that: “Npower programme in Kogi is a scam and does not exist, Ibrahim explained that in Ijumu LGA a total sum of N10.9 million was being disbursed by the federal governmen to the beneficiaries of its various social investment programmes on monthly basis.
Ibrahim said Kogi has over 4000 Npower beneficiaries receiving N30, 000 each as stipends without delay across the 21 local government areas of the state.
He said that the total number of the Npower beneficiaries under SIP in Kogi has N-Teach: 3,275, N-Agro: 665, and N-
Health: 292 beneficiaries across the 21 local government areas of the state.
He added: “as at June 2017, we have given out loans of N50,000 each to every member of 502 associations with average of 19 to 15 people per association under the GEEP.
“We are awaiting the disbursement of 4, 904 by next week. We have gotten additional 1000 beneficiaries already, and we have been able to recover loans from 1, 308, out of the 2,197 beneficiaries we have disbursed to.
“The home grown school feeding programme (HGSFP) intend to commence soon, and we have been able to interview about 600 caterers, and we are going to interview about 2000 for this programme “.
He added that about 9000 people from 12 LGAs have also been benefiting from the Conditioner Cash Transfer (CCT) in the state.
“We are proud to present to you just 100 out of thousands of beneficiaries in Kogi, who neither have god fathers nor knew anybody, who applied without bribing anybody.
“From the testimonies they have shared, some of them have even used part of their savings to set up small businesses.
He urge politicians to always give a concrete data rather than fabricating falshood,pointing out that “We are running the SIP the way the federal government said it should be operated with total integrity, transparency and accountability; and that is exactly what we are doing in Kogi,”
One of the Npower beneficiaries, Mr. Arogundade Abdulrasaq from Aiyetoro in Ijumu LGA, told journalists that the N30, 000 stipend for the Npower has really helped him a lot.
“I am under the NPower-Agro, I graduated from University of Agriculture, Markurdi, but I have been jobless for 10 years. Thank God for this program. It is real”, Abdulrasaq said.
Idris Ahmed, Lokoja
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