CSOs Hail Implementation Of Social Safety-net Programme

Centre for Health Education, Economic Rehabilitation and Social Security (CHEERS) and other partner civil society organisations (CSOs) have commended the federal government over the implementation of the National Social Safety-net programme (NASSP).

The CSOs made the commendation yesterday during a dissemination meeting with stakeholders on NASSP Year-2 third party monitoring (TPM) exercise in Abuja.

The executive director of CHEERS, Ajia Ogugua Agagbo, who is the national lead TPM CSO, in her welcome address, said the aim of the NASSP TPM is to objectively and independently access beneficiaries/community’s awareness, perception and satisfaction with the programme and as well as check the transparency and compliance level with the standard operating guidelines established for the programme.

She said a total of 18 states and 191 new local government areas were added to the previous 19 states and 280 LGAs that were monitored in year one, monitoring cycle.

The new states include Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, FCT, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, and Borno.

Revealing the TPM findings, Agagbo said, “The total population of beneficiaries sampled for the new 18 states are 119,669. This sample size of 119,669 beneficiaries represents 15 per cent of the overall total of 797,790 on the payroll of NCTO during the 2nd year monitoring cycle. The NASSP TPM findings for this second year monitoring show that the proportion of beneficiaries paid stood at 56,244 (47%) of the total 119,669 respondents.

“The remaining 63,425 (53%) of total respondents had not been paid during the monitoring quarter. The reasons advanced for non-payment of cash to beneficiaries were due to logistics challenges by the programme implementers.”