The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has flagged off the distribution of engagement letters and monitoring devices to trained Independent Monitors in Kano State at Coronation Hall Government House, Kano State on the 15th of June, 2021.
The Honorable Minister who was represented at the flag off by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bashir Nura Alkali disclosed that the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), created by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 is mandated to lift citizens out of poverty through Its various programmes such as N-Power, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
The Programme is implemented in the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory.
Continuing, Alkali said, the 320 Independent Monitors in Kano State are among the 5000 trained in February – April 2021 when the nationwide trainnig was held.
” The devices to be used in monitoring the Programme are locally made in Nigeria with an Application called the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS) designed by an indigenous company. Using this Application the Ministry sees real time activities of the Independent Monitors on the field, see reports submitted and the NSIP performance indicator state by state. This will help the Ministry detect areas where there are challenges and essentially help the Ministry to deliver on the mandate, to to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty” he said.
The Independent Monitors are expected to monitor a designated number of beneficiaries of the NSIP and will be paid a stipend of N30,000 monthly. However, they must meet up to 80% of the deverables to get their stipends. The engagement letters articulated the scope of work for the monitors which include ; routine monitoring of NSIP in their assigned
L.GA and provision of evidence based reports on findings amongst other things
The Permanent Secretary warned the monitors not to assign their responsibility to third parties, each monitor will be held accountable by the Ministry in the event of any misconduct.
He congratulated them and urged them to carry out the assignment with a sense of patriotism, diligence and sincerity.
The Executive Governor of Kano State who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Usman Alhaji waziriu Gaya, lauded the Ministry for its continued support in lifting Nigerians above the poverty line and improving on the living standards of the citizenry.
He told the IMs to make good use of the opportunity given to them to attain greater heights.
Earlier the Focal Person of the NSIP in Kano, Baba Aminu Zubair, said indeed the Programme is in keeping with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, adding that Kano State has the highest number of N-Power beneficiaries across the country.
Aminu affirmed that 119,000 household s registered under the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT) in Kano State received N5,000 monthly. He appreciated the Federal Government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for the kind gesture.
Others present at the event were:- senior officials of the State Government, the NSIP Coordinators from the LGAs and other dignitaries.
