Loveth Okoli
The Federal Government on Thursday started training 83 independent monitors to evaluate and monitor the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in Delta State.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, disclosed this while declaring the training open in Asaba.
The minister represented by her Special Assistant, Legal, Mrs Maymunah Idris, said that the training would enable the monitors to get acquainted with skills to monitor the programme at the community level across the state.
She, however, warned the monitors to be diligent and sincere while carrying out their responsibilities, adding that the supervising ministry would closely monitor them to ensure result.
She explained that the NSIP, created by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 and transferred to the ministry in 2019, has the mandate of lifting over 100 million citizens out of poverty through four social intervention programmes.
Farouq said that the four social intervention programmes were job creation programme (N-Power), National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.
She said, “Today, we are training 83 independent monitors that will monitor the programme at the community level in Delta.
“The independent monitors will be assigned to monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality in schools, households and market clusters with a focus in ensuring that the primary objectives of these programmes are achieved.
“The ministry will closely monitor the independent monitors but will not hesitate to take anyone off the programme if found violating the terms of engagement”.
Farouq noted that the need for the independent monitors was predicated on the large scope of the programme which had benefited no fewer than 13 million Nigerians spread across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
In her welcome address, the NSIP Focal Person in Delta, Mrs Bridget Anyafulu, who doubles as the Executive Assistant to Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, lauded the Federal Government for the programme which had impacted many youths and the less privileges in the state.
Anyafulu noted that the state government was in partnership with the Federal Government to deepen the profitable programme which had engaged unemployed persons in the state.
She said that the training of the 83 independent monitors was a relief to the state government efforts to closely monitor the programmes to ensure effective result.
Anyafulu said the state had earlier engaged 100 monitors for the programme with four persons in each LGA which was being headed by a traditional ruler.
“In effect, the independent monitors have as their task the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of NSIP in schools, households and market clusters within the locality assigned to them.
“Monitoring and evaluation will help in tracking how the activities are being implemented with a view to determining whether the activities are producing the intended result,” she said.
Anyafulu disclosed that the N-Power batch A and B had exited but the batch C has been processed for implementation.
“No fewer than 19, 500 persons in N-Power Batch A and B have been forwarded to the Federal Government for engagement from Delta.
“And over 8, 100 vulnerable households have been processed to benefit from the conditional cash transfer in Delta,” she said.
She tasked the participants to embrace the programme and ensure its success in the state.
The State acting Director, National Orientation Agency, Mr Chris Anyabuine, said the NSIP was established as a social safety nest to cushion the plight of the poor in the society.
Anyabuine tasked the trainees to ensure the success of the programme by taken their duties serious.
Some of the participants who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, lauded the training, adding that the training would help them ensure success of the programme.
