NSIPs: Kaduna Progr Managers, Independent Monitors Meet On Improved Collaboration….As 1,622 CCT Debit Cards Await Collection
The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) unit of the National Social Investment Programmes under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has raised a concern about a total of 1,622 unclaimed debit cards in its care.
This is even as a total of 827,438 children, cooks, youths and women are currently befitting from four NSIPs which are Home Grown School Feeding, N-POWER, Grant Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and CCT – spread across 1,383 communities in the 23 local government areas of the state.
Under school feeding, 735, 280 children and 7,261 cooks are benefitting. Under N-POWER, 7,977 graduate volunteers and 1,113 non-graduate volunteers are benefitting. Under GEEP, 5,750 traders, artisans etc are benefitting while a total of 70,051 residents are benefitting from CCT across the state.
Though the state is said to be having about 40 percent of its population which is currently put at about 10.088 million (2006 population projection) as poor, only about 2.7 million poor and vulnerable individuals so far captured in the state’s social register.
Remarking during a one-day stakeholders engagement session with NSIPs Independent Monitors and Programme Manager in Kaduna, Head CCT Unit, Social Investment Office, Kaduna, Hajiya Hauwa Abdulrazak said, her office has launched a conversation with relevant stakeholders to reach out to the beneficiaries to come forward and claim their debit cards as soon as possible.
According to her, “we have 70, 051 beneficiaries of CCT across the 23 local government areas of the state. 69,203 cards have been issued to Kaduna State. So, we have a shortage of 848 cards which we have notified the national office.
“So far we did the distribution and mop-up across the 23 LGs. We still have 1,622 in our office. We are appealing for those that own these cards to come for them because we don’t want to return them to Abuja”, she appealed.
Speaking on the sideline of the meeting, the Focal Person, Kaduna state Social Investment Office (KADSIO) Mrs. Amina Saude Atoyebi said, “the independent monitors have made our work easier because one of the challenges we had was how to monitor the delivery of these programme across about 4,000 schools and different health care centers where we have N-POWER volunteers. The feedback we are getting through the state coordinator has been helping us to take action”,she said.
On the unclaimed debit cards she said. “the challenge is that between the time of capture and disbursement of the debit cards, some have relocated while some have deceased.
“Some of them are also unable to come out due to the security situation in their areas. So, it is all about communication. We are trying to see a possibility of creating a central location where they can come and collect their cards. We will do that in collaboration with NOA and other local community stakeholders”, she added.
Earlier, State Coordinator, Independent Monitors, Aisha Bello said, the meeting became necessary to discuss the success and challenges of the four NSIPs in Kaduna state to improve the processes towards the overall success of the programmes in the state.
According to her, “we were engaged in June last year to see how we can help the federal government to improve the four. programmes and from the look of things, we are adding value and they have seen the need to extend it by another one year.
“We have about 240 independent monitors spread across the 23 local government areas. As independent monitors, our role is to go to the field and monitor these programs as they are happening. For example, our monitors are visiting every school where the home-grown school feeding is going on to ensure the children get what should get, ascertain the number of children being fed, enter the data into their tab and send it to the monitoring and evaluation desk in Abuja.
“This has helped the implementers to be on their toes because they know that someone is watching them closely compare to what was the practice ab initio.
“The area we are having a challenge is that of the communication gap between the monitors and programme managers. On some occasions, we don’t hear of the coming programme like CCT early and by the time we hear about and move there, people have collected their money and left which is making observations difficult for us. That was why I call for this meeting and I’m happy the concerned people have assured us of prompt notification of subsequent ones”, she said.