Federal Govt Trains GEEP Operators On Poverty Reduction

Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) has concluded a nationwide Advanced Step-down Training for its programme managers, community orientation and mobilization officers (COMOs), and GEEP desk officers in the states.

GEEP 2.0 is designed to achieve financial inclusion and provide access credit to the poor and vulnerable people engaged in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

It is also in furtherance of poverty eradication, employment generation, growth and development of MSMEs throughout the federation, the GEEP Programme is an interest-free and collateral empowerment Programme, to be implemented alongside a financial partner.

The team lead of GEEP 2.0 Hajiya Zainab Musawa made this known at the end of the Advanced Training on GEEP 2.0 Digitization and Registration for GEEP Programme Managers and Master Trainers which ended last week.
The three-day interactive training provided a comprehensive framework for the enhancement of the beneficiary registration process and implementation of the digital transformation of GEEP 2.0 which will include tools and techniques to be applied nationwide in Trader Moni, Market Moni, and Farmer Moni.

“The key important aspect of the training was to guide Local Government GEEP Desk Officer (GEEPDO’s) to prioritize the use of National Identification Number NIN as a criterion for qualification for GEEP 2.0 registration. The training was also meant to aid and improve the knowledge of state and local government value players who are the master trainers and GEEP programme managers on GEEP 2.0 digitisation process and registration, thereby implying the same knowledge as a step-down training process to the Community Orientation and Mobilization Officers (COMOs) and GEEP Desk Officers in the States nationwide.

“In order to continuously improve services to the rural communities and beneficiaries, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social development decided to adopt modern technology and Digitization methods to continually innovate, rethink and redesign processes which will deliver better beneficiary experience, and shift from the manual registration which was slow and cumbersome,” Musawa said.

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development took the training to the States where the Master Trainers impacted 774 COMOs/GEEPDOs spread across the Local Government Areas with the use of digital applications on the tablets provided for them to enhance beneficiary registration processes henceforth. This is in preparation for the second phase of GEEP 2-0 registration of beneficiaries which is expected to start in August 2022.