Flood: FG releases tons of maize, garri, sorghum to Delta victims

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, who made the announcement on Tuesday during a visit, said the gesture was part of effort to ameliorate the sufferings of the victims.

According to her, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the release of 12,000 metric tons of assorted food commodities from National Strategic Reserve for distribution to victims of the flood disaster in the country as a way of assuaging their suffering.

“Out of this, 105 metric tons of maize, 88.7 metric tons of sorghum and 98.7 metric tons of garri are to be distributed to the victims of flood disaster in the state.

“In addition, there are relief materials and other interventions that have been provided since July 2022 by NEMA, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

“I wish to also commend the Delta State Government for providing support to the flood affected persons and to acknowledge the understanding of the public on the intervention by the federal and state governments,” she said.

She said the GVG and GEEP programmes were part of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which is the flagship social protection programme of the President Buhari administration targeting the poor and vulnerable in the country.

“The GVG programme is designed to provide a one-off cash grant of N20,000.00 to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians in rural and peri-urban areas across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

“Our target in Delta State is to disburse the grant to about 3,000 beneficiaries across the 25 Local Government Areas in the state. It is worthy to note that 70% of these beneficiaries must be women, while the remaining 30% is for youths.

“Mr. President has further directed that, at least 15% of the total number of beneficiaries must specifically be allocated to citizens with special needs, including Persons with Disability (PWDs), internally displaced persons and senior citizens in the state.

“In line with this administration’s social inclusion agenda, we are also rolling out the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP 2.0) in Delta State. GEEP is a programme designed for vulnerable and low-income Nigerians who are involved in productive activities but have no access to loans.

“It gives priority to the most vulnerable in our society including widows, youths, persons with disability and the internally displaced. The programe has three signature schemes: TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.

“The TraderMoni loan of N50,000.00 targets under-privileged and marginalized youths in Nigeria aged between 18 and 40 years. The MarketMoni is also a loan of N50,000.00 given to under privileged and marginalized women in the society with a special focus on female-headed households.

“The FarmerMoni is a loan package that provides inputs worth up to N300,000.00 to rural farmers. Let me also state that under the first phase of GEEP 2.0, a total of 33,838 potential beneficiaries were registered across 28 LGAs in Delta State after which 11,991 were verified and 4,754 were enumerated. The total number of 4,657 beneficiaries were finally selected to receive disbursement.

“The selected beneficiaries have undergone enumeration and today we have come to roll-out the programme in the Delta State. Hence, successful beneficiaries of the GEEP proagramme will start receiving credit alert from Access bank from today by God’s grace”.

Speaking further, she thanked Governor Ifeanyi Okowa  for his support, adding that “the Federal Government has a dependable partner with demonstrable leadership qualities of selflessness and doggedness, especially when it comes to promoting the plight of the poor and vulnerable.”