Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in collaboration with Anambra State Government, has flagged off Electronics Conditional Cash Transfer programme in the state.

 

The flag off exercise held at the Professor Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, Awka, attracted beneficiaries from across the state, and was done through the National Social Investment Programme and Anambra State Cash Transfer Unit.

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The Electronics Conditional Cash Transfer programme, which is a support grant of five hundred thousand naira to the vulnerable households affected by banditry and internally displaced persons in Nigeria, is designed to lift the beneficiaries out of poverty by empowering them to improve their productivity, create wealth and generate employment.

 

Flagging off the exercise, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, represented by Special Adviser, Administration, in the ministry, Mr Kingsley Ngene, who pointed out that the initiative is part of the Buhari administration’s efforts towards lifting hundred million Nigerians out of poverty within ten years, explained that seven thousand households in Nigeria benefit from the scheme, and advised Ndi Anambra to be getting involved in numerous social intervention programmes of the federal government in order to be benefiting like citizens from other parts of Nigeria.

Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, represented by the state Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo, noted that his administration is working round the clock to make the state liveable, and promised to continue doing the needful to esure that Ndi Anambra continue to benefit from federal government largesse.

 

On his part, the Head, Anambra State Cash Transfer Unit, Mr Raphael Enukorah, while advising the beneficiaries to judiciously use the money, appreciated the state and federal government for its various efforts in ensuring the success of the intervention programme and the likes in the state, promising that his office will continue to do the needful to ensure that right persons benefit from the largesse.

In their separate remarks, the state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Chiamaka Nnake, represented by Director of Planning in the ministry, Mr Arthur Iwuanya, Acting Coordinator of Anambra State Operations Coordinating Unit, Mrs Josephine Anyaegbunam, and Director of State Emergency Management Agency, Chief Paul Odenigbo, represented by Barrister Chukwudi Onyejekwe, expressed dissatisfaction over response of people of the state in social intervention programmes of the federal government, urging them to always make themselves available to benefit from such intervention programmes as it is their right as citizens of the country.

 

Some of the beneficiaries who received the fifty thousand naira grant alert each during the flag off, including Mr Albert Emene from Orumba South, Mrs Nkiruka Okeke from Anaocha, Mr Ejike Chukwuebuka from Ayamelum Local Government Areas, while expressing happiness over the intervention programme , said they initially thought the grant was a scam, and promised to judiciously use the money.

Out of the seven thousand beneficiaries from across the country, five hundred beneficiaries were drawn from Anambra state.