Social Investment programme Plateau State Recieved A Boost As Federal Government Injected 1.6bn into the programme.

The aim of the meeting is to review various activities in the state, which includes the implementation of the program at the local government area by cash transfer facilities (CTF’s) the meeting will give them the opportunity to asses the progress of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) and also evaluate the achievement and the challenges and find the way of tackling the problems for better service.

According to her the components of the social investment programme of the federal government, is to reduce poverty, the program is developed to reduce poverty and bridge inequality, prevent the vulnerable from falling further and build shock for risks as well as improve household consumption and increase human capital development, the programme which started in 2016 with 8 pilot state, and later in plateau state in 2017 after which plateau state government signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government.

The first phase has 6 local government areas, Northern, Southern,and central Zones, 2 from each zone, namely Bass, Joseast, Bokkos,Kanke, Lantang North and Wase, and the total number of beneficiaries are over 21,000 but was reduced to about 11,000 when proxy mean test (PMT) was applied on the data of beneficiaries, and so far about 1.6bn has been injected into the economy of the state, the payment which is an end to end system is done by payment service provider selected by the National cash transfer office direct to the beneficiaries, and the SCTU supervises the payment exercise, the payment is carried out bi-monthly known as a payment cycle paying 10,000 per beneficiary, the basic cash transfer (BCT) for all CCT beneficiaries who have been enumerated and enroll as such.

Mrs Buenyen further explain that the top up of core responsibility, is the transfer where an additional 5,000 is paid to those enjoying the BCT, for certain reasons the Top-up is a package to support beneficiaries in broad areas of health, education, nutrition and environment, the choice which depend on individual state.

The plateau State government has chosen health as it’s area of responsibility, this by implications is that poor and vulnerable households (PVHHs) with pregnant women, lactating mother’s and children 0-5 years are to enjoy the Top-up this will enable beneficiaries access healthcare services such as pre-natal and post-natal attendance and also immunization and it’s aim at reducing mother and child mortality rate in the state.

And the activities under review are the training for CTF’s who step down and such beneficiaries also carry out activities trained for, and such activities are as follows,

(i) Grievance Reference Mechanism (GRM) Training

(ii) Co-responsible (APP) Training

(iii) Co-orientation Training

and the payment has three circle as follows, from January to February, March,and April, May and June, this method makes payment easier through the electronic payment system and they are also payment centers across the local government areas as compared to when it was done at the local head quarters.

Mrs Buenyen humbly appeal to the local government chairmen to witness the exercise in their domain, she also talk about the Co-responsibility enrolments, the package as mention earlier will transfer an additional 5,000 to qualified beneficiaries, and those eligible have been identified and enrolled and the Top-up transfer will soon begin.

Mrs Buenyen also highlights some other programs like the CCT also known as household uplifting programme (HUP) is making an appreciable impact in the lives of the PVHH’s in the state, and in an assessment carried out by the beneficiaries shows that, it Improved School Enrolment and Attendance, Saving Group Formation, Business Ownership and assessing basic needs of life like food, shelter, and clothing among others

The Executive Assistant to the governor of plateau state on Social investment programme (SIP) Dr Sumaye Hamza who’s the focal person in the state, in her remarks thank the people of the state and the executive governor Rt Hon Simon Bako Lalong, for his cooperation and creating the enabling environment for the programme to succeed, and also call on federal government to assist, and the national office to reconcile the data by the MBS, so that more people will benefit, because for now with the current data it has reduced drastically and urge the national office reconcile the data before the resumption of schools.and she commended the cash transfer unit for a job well done and also encourage them to work more harder.

Dr Sumaye further explain the institutional training, this is a form of capacity building (SCTU) the staff from different cadre, the training is organized by NCTO in different institutions across the country, she also assure the people of plateau state that when the other 11 Local government areas which are being enumerated by the state organizing and coordinating unit(SUCU) are enrolled and come on board, then there will be great transformation in the state.

The Hon chairman of Kanke local government Emmanuel lar who was a special guest as one of the benefiting local government also appreciate the program that program has really impacted life mostly in the rural areas and call, for more wider spread down to the villages, he also loud the school feeding program, which give some children the opportunity to eat more nutricious meal, it has also encourage enrolment of children in public school, he also acknowledge that they have also recieved bowls and utensils, at the local government and has seem distributed to the appropriate places.