No fewer than 2000 people would benefit from the second phase disbursement of the Kebbi-cares program of N200 million in Kebbi-State.
Flagging off the program on Monday at the presidential Lodge Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi State Deputy Governor Senator Umar Tafida Arugungu said that the aim of the program is to empower the less privileged and reduced poverty in the State.
He said that the present administration under the able leadership of Dr. Nasir Idris Kauran Gwandu has promised to support all intervention programs across the sectors.
He then appealed to the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the grants given to them and engage in meaningful trades that will support them and hopefully employ others in the near future.
“I applauded you people the KB-Cares Program for the remarkable effort in reaching out to people in need particularly the vulnerable,” he added.
In her welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Hajiya A’isha Usman, thanks the Kebbi State Governor for supporting the intervention adding that the targeted beneficiaries were the poor and the vulnerable to expand their access to livelihood and facilitating food security.
She explained that the disbursement was part of the Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus designed to last for two years.
Mrs.Usman announced that Kebbi State was the only State in Nigeria where beneficiaries get up to One hundred thousand naira as support while in other states of the country, beneficiaries only get thirty thousand naira.
She further explained that over 1,000 beneficiaries received livelihood grants of N100,000 to N150,000 each across the state in the first phase of disbursement under the KB-CARES program.
Also speaking the Kebbi State Coordinator of the scheme, Hajiya Rukayya Muhammad Bawa, said the program has targeted more than 28,000 beneficiaries, both males and females to engage in profitable ventures while emphasis would be placed on agriculture.
Rukayya enumerated a number of projects carried out under the program which have a direct bearing on the lives of people in the state
She added that water schemes were converted to solar power, feeder roads, and more classrooms were also constructed in towns and villages across the state under the program which is supported by the World Bank.
Also in attendance, were the Kebbi State Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Alhaji Yakubu Bala Tafidan Yauri, Head of Service, Alhaji Safiyanu Garba Bena, and the representative of the Emir of Gwandu Magajin Rafi Alhaji, Sambo Aliyu.
