THE Federal Government has inaugurated the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-Cares), which will be implemented with a 750-million-dollar World Bank facility.
Vice-president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo performed the inauguration yesterday as a prelude to the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting which he chaired at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
According to him, under the NG-Cares which would be for a two-year period (2021-2023), each state would get 20 million dollars, while the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would get 15 million dollars.
His words: “NG-Cares is a multi-sectoral programme designed to support vulnerable and poor Nigerians to provide essentially emergency relief to small holder farmers and MSMEs, especially those that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The programme will build on the varied and extensive Federal Government interventions developed as part of the president’s plan for taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and in response to the severe socio-economic fallouts of the pandemic, especially those programmes and plans contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP).”
“The essential addition to the Federal Government’s programme is that the NG-Cares programme will leverage on existing programmes in the states, especially job creation programmes, wealth creation, poverty reduction programmes at the community level such as state cash transfer units, state Fadama or agriculture development agencies, state job creation units and MSME units. All supported by Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
“The World Bank loan is in the order of $750 million and this will be over a period of two years — 2021-2023; the intervention allocation to each state is 20 million dollars and 15 million dollars to the FCT; there is also 15 million dollars for the Federal Cares Support Unit,” the VP added.
He explained that the programme is to be driven by the states and there will be a programme for result-delivery mechanism in which case, performance must be shown. He added that the Federal Government also regards the programme as an important complement to its own scaled-up number of beneficiaries of social transfer.
Osinbajo said, “Subsidy and grants to support individuals, households and MSMEs in the multi-year development plan for 2021-2024 was developed in the context of the response to the COVID-19 crisis and the ESP.
“That plan serves as a bridge to ensure successful programme implementation. The Federal Government will provide quality assurance, monitoring, capacity building and technical assistance to states and the FCT on project activities and results.
“Consequently, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Federal Cares Steering Committee, the Federal Cares Technical Committee and the Federal Cares Support Unit to provide overall policy direction, technical support to all the states and the FCT and to advise the president appropriately.”
The Vice-president urged stakeholders to deploy their wealth of experience and expertise to ensure successful take off and implementation of the programme, stressing that he is looking forward to prompt and effective implementation of the programme both at the federal and state levels.
Explaining the concept and design of NG-Cares, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba said that the vision was derived from the novel social protection agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He said that the framework of the NG-Cares programme was within the context of the ESP and the National Development Plan 2021 to 2025, developed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking further, Agba said the objectives of the NG-Cares are: to expand access to livelihood support, food security services and grants for the poor and vulnerable households and firms.
On his part, World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said NG-Cares involved collaboration between the Federal Government, multiple ministries and the states, adding that “its genesis was described by the Minister of State earlier on — after the onset of the pandemic.
“When it became clear that for Nigeria, possibly the greatest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic globally will be the impact on the livelihoods of small businesses; of poor and vulnerable households and farmers here in Nigeria, the socio-economic impact.
“So, earlier on, in parallel with discussions about how we might support Nigeria in terms of public health response, we also started discussions in terms of how we might handle the socio-economic response and the NG-Cares programme is the outcome of that.”
In his remarks, Chairman Nigeria’s Governors Forum and Ekiti Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi said NG-Cares was designed jointly with the World Bank team as a complement to the ESP.
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