Abia begins training of 70 NSIP independent monitors

About 70 persons recruited as independent monitors for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in Abia State have begun training, yesterday, in Umuahia, the state capital.

Speaking during the flag-off yesterday, NSIP Focal Person/Special Adviser to the Governor on Social Investment Programmes, Mr. Chinenye Nwaogu, described Abia as a robust platform through which the targeted population in the programme are reached.

According to him, though NSIP is a Federal Government initiative, it aligns with the vision of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who aims to lift people from poverty.

He said that most parts of Abia benefitted from the four-component programme.

About 20,000 have benefited from the N-Power component, 300,000 pupils in public primary school from the school feeding component, and 24,000 from the cash transfer component, he disclosed.

On the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) component of the NSIP, he added, about N3 billion has been distributed to about 30,000 beneficiaries to support their businesses.

Representative of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Abduljarim Iliyasu, said that the minister, Sadiya Farouq, reassured the nation of the Federal Government’s commitment to fully implement the NSIP whose aim was to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next decade.

He charged the independent monitors to exhibit a high sense of patriotism and dedication to their mandate of monitoring and reporting the extent to which the government’s objectives of the programme had been achieved.

State Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Ngozi Okechukwu, who said that 16 officers of the agency were among the independent monitors under training, assured that the agency would work assiduously to ensure that the goals of the programme were achieved and to assist in alleviating the poverty in the land.