ABEOKUTA : The Federal Government is set to give relief materials to victims of the Isheri Flood disaster in the Lagos-Ibadan area of Ogun state.
This was made known by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu during her visit to the state on Friday.
Edu who was in the state for an on the spot assessment of the flood areas, said the visit will afford her the opportunity to also update the state’s social register so that beneficiaries can start receiving the N25,000 conditional cash transfer.
“My mission is simple, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is concerned about the flooding and situation that have affected parts of Ogun State and Lagos State. I’m here to provide humanitarian support and response to those who have been affected by flooding.
“Of course, I have seen videos and pictures of the areas that have been affected by flood, we will be there first thing in the morning tomorrow to see things for ourself and of course take good step on number of persons that have been affected and how we can immediately support them. We came with a lot of relief materials which will be given to them.
“The second purpose why I’m here, is to ensure that we can have an update of Ogun State social register, which feeds into the National Social Register so they can begin to receive the N25,000 conditional cash transfer which has already started in several other states.
“The Governor set up an inter-ministerial team that have been working and need to do verification of beneficiaries of this conditional cash transfer, and they have been working with the National team to vet the register and ensure that they have BVN, NIN and they can verify their houses; this will enable payment to go out at once to beneficiaries from Ogun State”, Edu said
The Minister further reteraites that the Ministry has mapped out immediate intervention in the state, which according to her includes supports for market women and men, saying that it intend to take about Fifty Million people out of poverty within the next 42months.
“Beyond this, we have been able to carefully map out immediate intervention that will be carried out in Ogun State. Some are designed specifically for Ogun State, like the ADIRE scheme which we want to support women and men to produce ADIRE from very the inception to final products that can be sold in international markets and of course link them up to where they can sell; this is part our plans to lift them from poverty.
“We also have the GEEP Programme which is market and trader money as well as farmers money.
“Remember that GEEP is a zero interest rate loan to these persons, but the grant will also be supporting a programme and scheme which is already been implemented here in Ogun State.
“All of these is targeted and seen that we can achieve the President instruction of getting Fifty Million people out of poverty within the next 42months while we work towards getting every single person out of poverty by 2030 in line with the SDG goals”, she added