Gombe inaugurates Covid-19 Recovery Stimulus
Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, on Thursday inaugurated Covid-19 Action Recovery Stimulus to ameliorate the challenges faced by the advent of Coronavirus in the State.
Our correspondent reports that GO-CARES was domesticated form of the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery Stimulus Programme (NG-CARES), aimed at expanding access to livelihood support, food security services and the provision of grants to poor and vulnerable households and firms following the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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According to him, the intervention was Federal Government partnership with the World Bank to provide succour for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), households and individuals impacted by the devastating effects of Covid-19 in the country.
He said, “The impact of COVID-19 on the economy and livelihood of the people cannot be over emphasised. We saw global economies enter recessions, livelihoods disrupted and millions of jobs lost in an unprecedented manner with recovery just beginning. This makes the CARES programme not only timely but essential. The Challenges of Covid-19 and the global economic meltdown have certainly made us to be more strategic and focused in our development drive.
“NG – CARES is a laudable initiative . Today’s ceremony is a major step at putting these vulnerable groups that were worst affected by the pandemic on the path of recovery and growth, with the disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries who have met the World Bank’s stipulated eligibility criteria. These groups and individuals shall receive livelihood grants, social transfers, soft loans as well as improved access to basic services in order to support economic recovery, boost food production and enhance livelihood of the people.”
While lauding the Federal Government’s initiative, the governor said his administration had aligned with programmes centred on human capital development.
“As a government, this intervention perfectly aligns with our human capital development initiative as encapsulated in our ten-year Development Agenda for Gombe State (DEVAGOM). As an emergency recovery programme, the initiative will support our governments’ budgeted programme of expenditures and interventions specifically designed to expand access to livelihood support, food security and provide succour to the poor and vulnerable persons in our communities whose lives, businesses, jobs and means of livelihood have been distorted by the pandemic.
“In order to ensure maximum benefit from the programme, existing state-level delivery platforms with a track record of generating positive human capital development and economic returns for beneficiaries shall be used for the implementation of the interventions. These platforms will further be reinforced with a state level Steering Committee comprising of political and technical heads of key sectoral ministries and policy heads of agencies constituted by the Government to provide oversight and policy guidance for the programme in order to achieve greater results and the overall programme development objective,” the governor added.
