Outrage, Controversy Trail N5bn NG-CARES Grant For Youths In Edo

There is outrage among some of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government (NG- CARES) 3.2 grants to Edo State following allegations that they were underpaid as against the expected N500,000 approved after having undergone all the application processes.

Some beneficiaries who do not want to be mentioned accused Edojobs, one of the coordinating agencies of the programmes, of embezzling part of the N5 billion meant to be disbursed to all applicants who met the requirements.

They said that having waited and undergone the processes for the grant. They were shocked to receive an alert of N50,000 as against the N500,000 they applied for, while others equally received N100,000.

“This is pure embezzlement by the Edo jobs because we applied for the grants, and all the monitoring and Evaluation were done only for us to receive N50,000. What now happened to the N5b that came to Edo State?

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“It is only in Edo State that this is happening. Other states are giving up to N5 million to beneficiaries. Why is Edo different? What can one do with N50,000 in this present economy?”

But the head of Monitoring & Evaluation (M.E), Evaluation Results Area 3, Edo Cares, Mr Joseph Ogunleye, when contacted refuted the allegation that part of the grants was diverted or embezzled as being speculated by some of the beneficiaries.

Ogunleye, while making clarification on the grant, explained, ” Funds for beneficiaries ranges from N50,000 to N500,000, so beneficiaries don’t have a say on what they want to collect because it has to go through a lot of processes from application to vetting by the M&E. There is a platform we use for that which the Bank of Industry designs.

“The platform is so robust that it takes you through the application, enumeration, and at some point the platform can even reject your application. The N50,000 is for those doing petty business. There are people who received N500,000 because they have more staff, and we need to see their payroll and match it with people on the ground, but the slot for N500,000 is very small.

“People must understand that the NG-Cares is split into three areas, result areas 1, 2, & 3. Result area 3 is what we are handling. The money given to us is not up to N500 million. We need to split this money so that many people can benefit. We received over 25,000 applications.

“Over 3,000 people have benefited, including I.T. equipment and PoS. There is nothing like embezzlement, fraud or diversion.