Ekiti Government on Tuesday commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the Federal Government’s empowerment programme tagged: “Household Uplifting Conditional Cash-Transfer” (HUP-CCT) in the last four years.
Mr Victor Kolade, the Special Adviser on Social Investment Programme (SIP) to Gov. Kayode Fayemi, gave the commendation in Ado-Ekiti.
Kolade said that no less than N1.4 billion of the Cash-transfer had been released to beneficiaries in the state in the last four years.
The governor’s aide was speaking during the recommencement of the HUP-CCT payment to more than 11,107 beneficiaries in the state.
He said that the programme was targeted at lifting the most vulnerable out of poverty in the society.
“The conditional-cash-transfer is one of the programmes of SIP targeted toward assisting the poor. The programme is payment of stipends to the most vulnerable people in the society.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has the interests of lifting the vulnerable out of poverty.
“Within the last four years, precisely from 2016 to 2020, FG had given out N1.4 billion to some vulnerable people in Ekiti,”Kolade said.
He thanked the Federal G overnment for adding 6,402 beneficiaries to the former 4,705.
He advised the beneficiaries not only to use the money for feeding; but to also try and invest it in profitable ventures.
In her address at the event, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said the delayed in the payments was to improve on the modalities adopted for the programme.
The minister, represented by Mr Desmond Onu, the National Co-Responsibility Officer of the National Cash Transfer Office, assured the people of Federal Government’s commitment to making life better for its citizens.
In his address of welcome, the Ekiti Coordinator of Cash-Transfer Unit, Mr Tayo Adeokin, said that various measures had been put in place to achieve the aim of the programme.
Mrs Eunice Falaye and Mrs Deborah Bamidele, who are 62 years old respectively and beneficiaries of the exercise thanked the Federal Government for the gesture.
They said that they had been sustaining themselves through the little savings from the stipends.
There were goodwill messages from the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Jinadu Ayodele, and the Ekiti Assembly House Committee Chairman on Trade and Investment, Mr Yemi Osatuyi.
(NAN)
