By Asmau Ahmad
The World Bank said Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme is doing well in addressing poverty in the country.
World Bank Task Team Leader for NG-CARES, Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa stated this in an interview with newsmen on the side-lines of Mid-Term Review Mission meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the bank had so far disbursed over 300 million dollars, assuring that all the remaining resources would be released within the next eight months.
“We are quite happy about what has happened to the programme. It is still very active in all the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“And they are all very eager to get even into the next phase of the programme because caring for the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria is still the thing that government is concern about.
“Each state of the federation has been encouraged to put together a set of interventions into one programme that totally cares for the poor and vulnerable.”
Prof. Okunmadewa recalled that the programme became preeminent immediately after the COVID-19 crisis, where both the livelihood and the lives of people were threatened.
“And so, government was responsive enough at the federal and state levels to put this programme together and the world bank gladly agreed to support it.
“Now two and half years after it was being put in place, we have felt is good to take a look at how fair is the programme going.
“And particularly how well is the world bank assistance, whether it is relevant or not and whether it is achieving the desire results.
“Of course, I will like to say that it is doing well now but after a very difficult start. It had a challenging start, had a slow start but now it has pick up and it is even almost exceeding the expectations
“To the extent that there is clearly a desire to continue the programme at the government level and also the world bank to also support the next face of it.”
Earlier, the National Coordinators of NG-CARES, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, said that the programme had so far impacted into the lives of over three million Nigerians.
He said the 36 states and the FCT have contributed between N88 billion to N90 billion since the inception of the programme.
Dr Obaje explained that the instrument of operation and strategy put into the design of the programme emphasised on community participation.
He also said that the emphasised of the programme had moved from COVID-19 to deploying the resources of the community to address their peculiar needs.
