Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, HajiyaSadiya Umar Farouq, has distributed N20,000 each to 5,679 beneficiaries across the 20 local government areas in Bauchi State under the Grant for Vulnerable Groups programme (GVG).
At the flag-off of the disbursement of the grant to the vulnerable groups and other programmes in Bauchi yesterday, Farouq said the state has the highest slots in the country, which is necessary to address the impact of insurgency, banditry and large volume of IDPs in the state.
She said the GVG programme was planned to provide a one-off cash grant of N20,000 to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians in rural and semi-urban areas across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory to empower people and to improve their productivity and the performance of their commercial activities, and ultimately ease them out of poverty.
According to her, the GVG is President Muhammadu Buhari’s manifesto fulfilment project, which was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of President Buhari’s administration on the poor, which is consistent with his compassionate and deliberate national agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
He said, “It is worthy to note that President Muhammadu Buhari, through his deliberate social inclusion agenda has directed that 70 percent of these beneficiaries must be women, while the remaining 30% is for youths.
“He (Buhari) further directed that, at least 15 percent of the total number of beneficiaries must specifically be on citizens with special needs, including Persons With Disability (PWDs) and senior citizens in the state,” the minister said.
She called on the state government to adopt the GVG programme and extend similar interventions to amplify the needed social inclusion in the state.
The minister also flagged off the Roll-Out the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP 2.0) in the state with 4,000 beneficiaries.
