Musa Na Allah Sokoto
Sokoto State Governor Ahmed Aliyu flagged off the payment of Livelihood and Social Cash Transfer Grants to beneficiaries under the State CARES (SOSCARES) Program on Friday.
The Governor, while flagging off the program at the council chamber government house, said the program is one amongst many introduced by his administration to better the lives of the citizens, improve living conditions, reduce poverty, and ensure self-dependence.
He said: “On Assumption of leadership, we have disbursed several financial supports to thousands of beneficiaries under the Sokoto CARES program. Under the Small and Medium Enterprises Scheme, we have disbursed One Billion five million to over 8,300 beneficiaries with the lowest grant size of One hundred thousand and a maximum size of five hundred.
“Under Fadama CARES a total of over 48,000 smallholder farmers received various agricultural inputs, we have equally constructed many rural roads across the 3 senatorial zones across the state to facilitate transportation of farm produce to markets. This is in addition to the disbursement of grinding machines and small ruminants to hundreds of beneficiaries free of charge.
“Today’s event is yet another ground breaking one, we would insha Allah commence the disbursement of Livelihood Grants to Economically Active beneficiaries to support their livelihood.
“A total of 9,700 beneficiaries will start receiving their alert today, of N75,000, N100,000 and N150,000 each. This grant is to support and encourage your livelihood endeavors. The funds are yours use it wisely.
“We have equally inherited a payment backlog of 4 months of Social Cash Transfer of 40,000 each to 1,950 beneficiaries.
“A total of 640 beneficiaries have so far corrected their BVN with their NIN in line with the CBN provisions, and they will start receiving their alert today, while reconciliation of the remaining will continue simultaneously with their payment, “No one will be left behind.
“At this juncture, I’m happy to inform you that we have already made funds available to the Delivery Platforms for the enrolment of a new set of beneficiaries. 3,000 new beneficiaries would be enrolled under Social Cash Transfers, 10,000 beneficiaries under Livelihood, and over 13,000 new beneficiaries under Operational Grants to SMEs, all of these are with immediate effect.
“Let me once more reiterate my administration’s determination to continue to introduce poverty reduction initiatives so as to make our teeming Populace productive and enterprising.
“I want to use this opportunity to call on the beneficiaries of our social cash transfer, Operational Grants, and other forms of interventions to make the best use of the monies given to them by investing the money in the best way that it will generate income for them.”
The Governor, however, commended the state partners in poverty reduction interventions for their support towards making the program successful.
