By; DAHIRU SULEIMAN, Dutse
No fewer than 30,000 Jigawa indigenes are expected to benefit from four categories of Economic Empowerment Programmes of the World Bank Support on COVID-19 Economic Stimulus between now and end of next year.
The State Coordinating officer of J Care of the coordinating units of the programme, Mal. Umar Idris disclosed this while speaking to New Nigerian in his office in Dutse.
He said that the activity will be financed through the approved release of the N1.7 billion for the implementation of COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) programme in four key areas, by Governor Badaru.
These include, Economic Empowerment where 1,648 people are expected to derive from different support in acquiring agricultural accessories such as, fertilizer, insecticide, seeds, etc.
On the agricultural sector through Fadama Programme, about N678 million Naira was earmarked in providing agric accessories in different formats to 3,260 farmers.
Under this programme, the government is expected to spend about N800 million, out of which N365,863,210 will be disbursed to over 3,000 beneficiaries, and N410,995,790 would be spent under the state’s Economic Empowerment on Women and Youths in offering various training opportunities for self reliance.
The breakdown of the disbursement is as follows, Fadama under the Agricultural sector was allocated N678m, Cash Transfer N356m, Women Affairs, N51m, and Commerce N204m.
According to Idris, the programme targets 3,266 beneficiaries within the first six months of implementation, out of which they covered 10,000 people, out of the four segments of the programme, going by the directives of His Excellency to expand for participation of more participants to allow the accomodation of the down trodden masses at the grassroots.
“Initially, 118 registered companies were expected to partake in the four different categories of the programmes across Jigawa State, out of which 84 are registered with Corporate Affairs Commission among other registered companies.
It would be recalled that Jigawa finished position at the last performance in implementing COVID-19 prevention by the World Bank statistics.
