Oyo state Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde has inaugurated a steering committee for COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus, Programme for Result (CARES) to provide necessary intervention and support that would improve livelihoods in the state
The ten man steering committee which was inaugrated at the executive council chambers will be chaired by the commissioner for finance, Mr Akinola Ojo.
Speaking before the inauguration, Governor Seyi Makinde said the focus of the world bank assisted project was basically to mitigate the damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim of caring for the poor and vulnerable, guarantee food security, support micro small and medium enterprises (MSME)s as well as increase access to health care. His words:
“We are gathered here to inaugurate the CARES programme for result in Oyo State. The programme is aimed at mitigating the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So, it is about post-COVID-19 economic recovery and we are looking at three major areas. We want to increase access to basic services such as health care. We want to take care of the poor and the vulnerable household within the state and we also want to strengthen food supply chain for the poor households because we know that once we are able to tackle hunger, people are able to think correctly.
“We also want to support the MSMEs to navigate this difficult time. We already started taking this action since last year with the distribution of palliative to the poor and vulnerable households. We also distributed farm inputs to farmers in the state to increase food production. We came up with the N1bn MSME fund to provide credit at a single-digit interest rate to MSMEs in the state and while I was comparing a note with the focal point for that. DG OYSIPA told me that about N500m already and they still have other applications. So, we have been doing most of these things.
“The programme is not just grant or giving money to us, it is a programme for result. So, we have to spend the money first and the World Bank will have to confirm that we have spent the money on those things that we said w are going to spend the money on. With this, we can even do more apart from what we have been doing on our own to help our economy recover from the effect of COVID-19 and the economic meltdown occasioned by the drop in oil prices, which have been affecting the federal allocation coming to the state.”
Earlier, the chairman of the steering committee and commissioner for finance, Mr Akinola Ojo explained that the world bank facilitated programme Nigeria CARES (NCARES) had earmarked 750 million dollars for a 2 year financial support to states across the country to improve livelihoods, guarantee food security, provide grants for poor and vulnerable households amongst other intervention, and pledged that Oyo state would access maximum grant from the programme in line with the current administration’s vision of moving the people from poverty to prosperity. According to him, “It is a world bank-assisted programme for results with an earmarked sum of $750m to support the 36 states of the federation, including FCT. This P for R, which is the programme for results, is aimed at mitigating the devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the livelihood of the poor, vulnerable households amongst us as well as to help cushion the effect of this pandemic on the economic activities of the respective states.
“The objective of the programme is to basically expand access to livelihood support, food security services, grants for the poor, vulnerable households and organisations. This objective would be measured using free-result indicators, the number of beneficiaries of targeted … and who have access to basic social services, the number of farmers supported to increase food production, a number of vulnerable and viable firms supported by the programmes.
“The programme further outlines a two-year financial support to the state to fulfill programme development objectives in three key areas; increasing cash transfers and livelihood support to poor and vulnerable households. This was support scaling up existing safety in health intervention, increasing food security and safe functioning of food supply chain for the poor households. This was support scaling up interventions to help farmers increase food production and facilitate smooth functioning of the food supply chain and, finally, facilitating the recovery of Medium and Small Scale Enterprises.”
List of OYO STATE CARES STEERING COMMITTEE (SCSC)
1. Comm Finance chair Akinola OJO
2 comm women affairs and social inclusion member Alhaja Faosat Joke Sanni
3. Comm for Agric and rural development Hon. Ojemuyiwa Ojekunle
4. Comm for trade, industries and cooperatives Hon Adebisi Adeniyi
5. Comm for environment and natural resources. Hon Lateef Oyeleke
6. DG OYSADA/ Executive adviser on Agribusiness Dr. Adebowale Akande
7. DG. Oyo investment and PPP, Hon Segun Ogunwuyi
8. Executive Asst Intervention funds Aderonke Adebayo
9. Chairman Community and social development agency. CSDA Hon. Ahmed Eesuola
10. State CARES coordinator Kikelomo Adegoke