The Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme has said over 100 communities have been impacted with critical infrastructural support across Nasarawa state.
Coordinator of NG-CARES in Nasarawa state, Umar Ibrahim, disclosed this on Friday, after inspecting some projects undertaken by NG-CARES in the state.
He explained that the programme had opened up access roads to rural communities to enable them build the rural economy and revive their livelihoods affected by the wobbling economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NG-CARES programme seeks to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the livelihoods of poor individuals, farmers, vulnerable households, communities and owners of micro and small enterprises, he explained.
He further said apart from the construction of rural roads, so far, 73 schools were renovated out of which some were newly constructed, 89 primary healthcare centres constructed and 73 boreholes also sunk.
He equally said the programme has empowered over 17, 000 less privileged in different sectors of the economy aimed at alleviating the sufferings occasioned by the pandemic.
As according to him, “6,000 less privileged persons received N10,000 monthly, and over 11, 000 farmers have benefitted from the project’s agriculture development initiative. 100 communities have also been supported with classroom blocks, instructional materials, health facilities, and solar-powered water facilities across the state.”
He said, out of the 10 intervention areas, the state had penciled out seven important areas including Health, Agriculture, Education, Conditional Cash Transfer, Water and Sanitation, which had received serious attention to achieve the results of the programme.
The coordinator explained further that due to serious political will demonstrated by Governor Abdullahi Sule, for the programme to succeed, the state was able to access the sum of N13.6 billion intervention fund and the highest-funded state in the whole of the federation, with 10 percent of the total intervention provided by the World Bank to Nigeria.
