By Funso Alarape
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
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The Social Transfer component of the Oyo State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (OY-CARES) is to benefit no fewer than 3,300 poor and vulnerable households in the state during the third phase of its implementation via the State Cash Transfer Unit.
This was disclosed by the state coordinator of, the Cash Transfer Unit, Mr. Akintunde Gbadamosi, during a day orientation training for the third batch of Social Transfer facilitators of OY-CARES across the 33 local government areas of the state held recently at Plaza De Haruna Hotel, Oyo town on Monday
According to him, the beneficiaries were drawn from all the 33 LGAs in the state from the data mined from the State Operation Coordinating Unit (SOCU).
Gbadamosi said a cash transfer of N10,000 per month to the beneficiaries in the third phase of the program would commence after the ongoing training of the facilitators.
“The data from SOCU covers some categories of disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals ranging from aged, chronically ill, physically challenged, urban poor, and widows,” he said.
The state coordinator explained further that the OY-CARES program was an emergency operation from the Federal Government domesticated by the state government “which is designed to support budgeted programs of expenditures and interventions at the state level.”
He added that the program targeted existing and new vulnerable and poor households in the agricultural value chain, and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) affected by the economic crisis informed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The sum of N10,000 per month is awarded to be given for a year to the Social Transfer component beneficiaries to aid their consumption and reduce stress. The transfer, which is card-based, will be paid N20,000 bi-monthly,” he said.
Recall that in 2019/2020, a global pandemic called COVID-19 ravaged the universe, with a large proportion of citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable households and individuals facing challenges on multiple fronts such as losses of labor, income, food, insecurity, etc.
Mr. Gbadamosi stated further that the OY-CARES program was designed to run for a period of two years (2022 to 2024) and was being implemented using existing structures at the level of the state and Federal Governments, “without creating any add-on project implementation structures.”
He stressed further that the Oyo State government, in the first phase, had 1,755 beneficiaries from 18 local governments and 1,755 beneficiaries from 15 local governments in the second phase; and now, 3,300 for the third phase from all the 33 local governments in the delivery platform of Cash Transfer handling Social Transfer (ST).
Facilitators were trained on how to organize and deliver sensitization, data validation, and enrolment activities of Social Transfer at local government and community levels, ensuring supervision and monitoring at the local government level.
It also involved collecting discussing and possibly resolving reported grievances from communities over the ST process from community grievance persons in the community among others.
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