Nigeria COVID 19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Program trains 50 operational staff in Borno

Nigeria COVID 19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Program trains 50 operational staff in Borno

By Bodunrin Kayode

The World Bank supported Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme also known as Fadama NG-Cares programme has trained 50 operational staff in Borno to enable proper implementation technics of the project in line with Federal government’s agreed guidelines.

The participants for the intensive two-day training programme drawn from the 27 council areas and the state coordination office acquired Facilitation Skills on Proper Data Collection Procedures, Community Action Recovery Plan Preparation, Community Procurement and Independent Verification Agents protocol among others.

The COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme is designed to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security of the poor and vulnerable households and facilitate the safe functioning of the food supply chains.

Declaring the workshop open recently, the Borno State Governor Professor Babagana Zulum represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources Dr. Ali Mustapha stressed the importance of staff training towards proper implementation of project activities.

He added that the Nigeria COVID 19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme otherwise known as Fadama NG-Cares when fully implemented will greatly help poor and vulnerable persons in Borno State.

This to him is a response in addressing the lots of poor Nigerians affected by the COVID–19 lock-down particularly those in Borno State whose conditions were worsened by almost 13 years of Boko haram insurgency.

While acknowledging the successful implementation of some project activities such as the six different crops input to farmers, offering of mechanization service to selected beneficiaries in various communities as well as the distribution of irrigation inputs to dry season farmers across the state, the Governor also assured of his total commitment to ensure that Fadama NG Cares in Borno ends successfully with good results benefiting the target audience.

Governor Zulum also commended the Borno State NG Cares team for their foresight to organize the training and acknowledged the courage and commitment of the resource persons from the National Fadama Coordination office for supporting Borno state.

Also speaking, National Coordinator of Fadama NG-Cares, Alhaji Abdulrahman Balarabe represented by the Head of Community Development and Gender Busayo Awotunde, commended Governor Zulum for spearheading the process of meeting the goals of the project and the state steering committee members for their determination towards ensuring successful take off of the FAMADA NG-Cares Project in Borno.

The project she said is designed to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security of the poor and vulnerable households also facilitate the safe functioning of food supply chains.

Food security she said has been at the front burner of the present administration as both the state and Federal Government levels hence all hands must be on deck to ensure its total success.

She noted that, the success of the NG-Cares is hinged on effective and quality facilitation, hence the relevance and importance of local Government Desk Officers and Project facilitators at the community level.

The task of ensuring proper implementation of all the project activities at the community she said rests squarely on their shoulders hence their selection for the training to adhere and lead the project implementation in line with the guidelines.

On his part, the State Coordinator of FAMADA NG-Cares, Bukar Bita enjoined the participants to be serious both during the training and actual implementation and challenged the participants to ensure that Borno state records the best result in Nigeria as Success or failure the project lies squarely on their shoulders.

Earlier, the Head of Famada NG-Cares Coordination Unit Maina Arjinoma said, Governor Babagana Zulum has deployed structures for effective and safe functioning of the food supply chain of the common man in line with the World Bank guidelines.

Being an inter-Agency response Programme using existing state structures such as the FAMADA as delivery platforms nationwide the project is currently implementing labour intensive agricultural infrastructure for increased food security.

The training he said will help the participants to clearly understand the implementation procedures and deep knowledge on the independent verification agents protocols for adherence.

At the end of the training most participants expressed delight saying the training has impacted positively on their prior knowledge and promised to ensure success of the project.