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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Ms. Sadiya Farouq, has reiterated that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is committed to tackling poverty in the country as evidenced in several national programmes that are focused on poverty eradication.
Farouq stated this at the weekend in Asaba where she flagged off the training onboarding for 3,000 Stream Two independent monitors of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
Farouq noted that the NSIP programme was created by President Buhari in 2016 to lift citizens out of poverty through various social interventions that included N-Power job creation programme, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT) and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
The minister, who was represented by the NSIP Team Leader (South South), Mrs. Margaret Chuka-Ogwude, said that the independent monitors would supervise the programme in different communities across the state.
Farouq described the monitors as very important components of the NISP and said that the exercise in Delta State was in line with the nation-wide training flagged off in Abuja on June 9 and charged the beneficiaries to ensure the success of the NSIP in their respective communities.
She said that the team has been duly equipped and would monitor participating schools, households and market clusters to ensure that the primary objectives of the NSIPs were achieved through effective monitoring of its implementation.
She said: “Stream One of this programme had 4,452 independent monitors trained and enrolled across the country in February and March, 2021 and began work as monitors of NSIP in June 2021. They were trained and on boarded by my ministry in collaboration with the State Focal Persons and NSIP officials.”
She pointed out that the independent monitors were duly deployed in every local government area where the NSIP was being implemented.
The minister said: ”Using the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS) application, our Stream One monitors have been uploading their report on a daily basis and this gives us good visibility into programme implementation within the different communities.
”The incoming Stream 2 monitors are expected to continue using the same platform to regularly report their activities from the field”, she stated, adding that the training was strategic.
”Monitoring at the state requires that independent monitors work hand in hand with the State NSIP team, as their work cannot be done in a vacuum. Any independent monitor found intimidating or harassing a beneficiary will be taken off the programme.
”We are also working with Non-Governmental Organisations and civil society groups that will support you in your monitoring assignment.”
On his part, the State Programme Manager of N-Power, Mr. Henry Aggreh, urged the monitors to be focused and committed to their jobs.
Aggreh said: “The federal government is engaging you so that the NSIP can succeed, and you all must ensure that the programme succeeds in your local government area.”
Also, the NSIP Zonal Consultant (SouthSouth), Mr. Fajana Adetubosun, congratulated the monitors and advised them to ensure that they monitor each of the programmes in their local government.
