The Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya has officially flagged off the implementation of the Covid-19 Action Recovery Stimulus Programme.
The programme is to promote economic recovery from Covid-19 pandemic in the State.
Tagged GO-CARES, the programme is aimed at expanding access to livelihood support, food security services and the provision of grants to poor and vulnerable households and firms, following the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Governor Yahaya, “the flag-off is a major step at putting the vulnerable groups that were worst affected by the pandemic on the path of recovery and growth, through the disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries, who met the stipulated eligibility criteria set up by the World Bank.”
Governor Yahaya said; “beneficiary groups and individuals would receive livelihood grants, social transfers, and soft loans as well as improved access to basic services in order to support economic recovery, boost food production and enhance the livelihood of the people.
“As an emergency recovery programme, the initiative will support our governments’ budgeted programme of expenditures and interventions specifically designed to expand access to livelihood support, food security and provide succour to the poor and vulnerable persons in our communities whose lives, businesses, jobs and means of livelihood have been distorted by the pandemic.”
The Governor said existing state-level delivery platforms with a track record of generating positive human capital development and economic returns for beneficiaries would be used for the implementation of the interventions, to ensure maximum benefit.
Governor Yahaya said the platforms would be reinforced with a state-level Steering Committee, made up of political and technical heads of key sectoral ministries and policy heads of agencies to provide oversight and policy guidance for the programme.
He started that the programme has a budget of 8.5 billion naira, to support 288,700 beneficiaries in the two-year duration of the programme.
“From this amount, N3.4 billion will be for supporting the vulnerable households with grants and basic services, and another N3.4 billion shall be used to support our farmers with farm inputs, to increase food production and enhance the performance of the food supply value chain.
“The sum of N1.7 billion shall be disbursed as grants to MSMEs to support their operation activities and help them recover from the huge losses suffered during the pandemic,” Governor Yahaya said.
GO-CARES is the domesticated form of the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery Stimulus Programme NG-CARES, an initiative of the Nigerian Government in partnership with the World Bank. The aim is to provide succour for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, households and individuals impacted by the devastating effects of Covid-19 in the country.
“The impact of Covid-19 on the economy and livelihood of the people cannot be over-emphasised. We saw global economies enter recessions, livelihoods disrupted and millions of jobs lost in an unprecedented manner with recovery just beginning. This makes the CARES programme not only timely but essential,” Governor Yahaya explained.
He said the intervention aligned perfectly with the Gombe State human capital development initiative, which had been captured in Ten-Year Development Agenda, DEVAGOM.
According to him, the implementation of the GOMBE-CARES will be faithfully executed to achieve the desired results.
He stated that his administration remained committed to providing all necessary administrative and operational support to ensure a hitch-free implementation in the state.
Governor Yahaya commended the Nigeria Governors’ Forum for supporting Government to ensure that the programme was approved by the World Bank for implementation in Nigeria.
He also thanked the World Bank for the intervention and for working with various State Governments in the country towards cushioning the socio-economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the people, particularly the poor and vulnerable.
The Chairman of the Gombe State CARES Steering Committee and Commissioner of Finance, Mr. Muhammadu Magaji, said the pre-implementation activities of the programme had already been concluded, like training, verifications and selections.
He said it is remaining the actual implementation of the GO-CARES in the state.
“We pray that this will be to the benefit of all the people of Gombe and it will help change the lives and livelihoods of the poor people, who will be impacted by this very project,” Mr. Magaji added.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
