The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development on Saturday trained officers of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP2.0) digitisation and registration in Niger.
Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, announced this in Minna at the training.
Farouq said that the training was for Community Orientation and Mobilisation Officers (COMOs) of NOA who serve as desks officers of GEEP in 25 local government areas of the state.
Farouq, represented by Hajiya Amudatu Abdulsalam, Supervisor of GEEP in Niger, said that the programme was among the National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIP) aimed at tackling poverty and hunger across the country.
“The GEEP 2.0 is designed to give access to credit support for the poor and vulnerable individuals, including persons with disability and persons at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
“The training exercise is to acquaint the COMOs with the new criteria of registration, the new GEEP digitisation application pre-loaded on the tablets to be presented to them.
“The tablets are to be used for digitisation aimed at seamless programme implementation and to bring the COMOs up to date with the new strategies and requirements for phase two registration”, she said.
The minister called on the COMOs to double their efforts to ensure the success of the programme, warning against extortion and intimidation of beneficiaries as anyone found guilty would be dealt with.
In her remarks, Hajiya Amina Gu’ar, Focal Person of the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) in Niger, said that the three components of GEEP such as; Tradermoni, Marketmoni and Farmermoni, are aimed at touching the lives of the poor and the vulnerable in the society.
She advised the COMOs to ensure that beneficiaries of the programme were properly captured, adding that the training was to strengthen the programme and ensure its sustainability.
Also, Malam Hamza Audu, the state Director of NOA, appreciated the federal government for empowering the less-privileged and ensuring that poverty is reduced to the barest minimum.
He urged the trainees to pay attention to the training and practise the code of ethics of the job which included integrity, discipline, honesty and fairness, among others.(NAN)
