Follow Us on Google
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Ten months after they were trained in different agricultural enterprises under the Agro-Processing, Productivity, Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS), groups of people with disability (PWD) in Kaduna State have raised the alarm over the delay in disbursement of the promised grant.
They are worried that the delay was peculiar only to the implementers of the project in Kaduna State as they claimed that their colleagues in the five other implementing states, Enugu, Cross River, Kogi, Kano and Lagos, have been settled and are already advancing in their chosen enterprises.
Hundreds out of 1,715 small and medium-scale Kaduna farmers who are benefiting from the APPEALS training and grant in the state are people with disability and special needs, monitoring and evaluation officer, APPEALS, Abdulwasiu Olayinka Fawole, told journalists in November 2021.
APPEALS is a six-year project developed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in collaboration with the World Bank and other stakeholders, in line with the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) 2016-2020 of the Federal Government.
One of the people with disability, Rilwan Muhammed Abdullahi, told this correspondent that he had done all that was required to get the grant after he was trained in the poultry auxiliary around October 2021 but he was yet to be contacted on the next step.
He said: “I am one of the beneficiaries of APPEALS. We were trained around October 2021. After the training, we were issued forms by APPEALS to select areas of enterprise, which we did. APPEALS facilitated our registration at CAC, after which we were asked to open accounts with a bank.
“They told us later that our accounts were having issues. So, I contacted the bank and I was told that APPEALS was yet to submit our CAC certificate. I then contacted APPEALS and they promised to resubmit the certificate to the bank. Since then, I am yet to hear from both the bank and the APPEALS.”
Another PWD, Ishiaku Musa Maji, who was trained in poultry, expressed fears over the delay, saying: “APPEALS is in six states, namely, Enugu, Lagos, Cross River, Kogi, Kaduna and Kano, and I have heard reliably that people with disability in these states have been settled.
“So, the concern is, what is stopping Kaduna APPEALS from settling PWD? If it is about population, Kano has more population than Kaduna and our members there have been settled.”
Acting chairman, Blind Association of Nigeria (BAN), Kaduna State chapter, Ibrahim Abubakar, said: “Since offering our training last year around September, we don’t know what is going on. We have not heard anything from APPEALS about our status and we are worried.”
Executive director, Women with Disability Self-Reliance Foundation, Riskat Toyin Muhammed, said: “It is so surprising and very painful when you look at how APPEALS project is being handled when it comes to PWD. This is a project that has a timeline. It is almost a year now that PWD were trained and they have not been given anything.
“The APPEALS has been telling us that our registrations are having problems. When our people went to the bank, they were told there were no problems with their accounts. Already, we are eight months gone into 2022 and almost a year after the training.
“So, as we speak, none of about 100 PWD that were trained has received any alert or know their status. Unfortunately, the people handling it would be calling PWD to threaten them to stop complaining because the project is a privilege and not a right.
“We are pleading with the governor to intervene. We want an internal investigation. What is happening with our funds is a social protection project under the state government, designed to reduce poverty, discrimination and marginalisation. Kano, Kogi and Lagos-trained PWD were settled a few months after. So, if other implementing states can do it, what is the issue with Kaduna State?”
In the same vein, chairman, Joint National Association, PWD in Kaduna, and one of the prospective beneficiaries in the APPEALS project, Suleiman Abdulazeez, said: “Our colleagues in other states have been doing their businesses because the grant has been made available to them.
“We have made necessary appeals to APPEALS and they have been telling us it is in the pipeline. What pipeline? Our colleagues in other states have collected their grant.”
On his part, executive secretary, Kaduna State Disability Affairs Board, Aliyu Haruna Yakassai, said he has replicated the concerns raised by PWD at the higher level and awaits a cheering response.
He said: “The PWD complained to us that virtually all their colleagues in other states under this project have benefited. In one of our meetings, where I was privileged to represent the Ministry of Human Services and Social Development, I raised the issue after a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture told the meeting that they had concluded disbursing the grants to all the beneficiaries and that they were now monitoring implementation.
“So, the chairman of the state’s Committee on Social Protection, Mrs. Saude Amina Atoyebi, asked the man from the agriculture ministry to find out and get back to her. Up till now, I’ve not received and briefing from the ministry of agriculture. I also complained to the desk officer at the APPEALS office here in Kaduna that my people were yet to receive their grant and he promised that they were almost at the final stage of the process. That is the latest as far as this issue is concerned.”
