The Abia government says it is poised to collaborate with the federal government to effectively implement the conditional cash transfer for the poor and vulnerable persons. 

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Ngozi Felix, said this at the formal opening of a one-day training of local government cash transfer facilitators on the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer Orientation and beneficiary enrolment process in Abia on Friday.

Ms Felix also said the state would support the federal government’s initiative to achieve the collective goal of poverty reduction in the state and country in general.

She said, “Under the administration of Dr Alex Otti, poverty reduction is a top priority.”

Ms Felix commended President Bola Tinubu for allowing Abia people to benefit from the conditional cash transfer programme.

The commissioner, accompanied by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Ogechi Oguama, advised the trainees, who were the local government cash transfer facilitators, to participate actively in the training.

In a speech, the representative of the National Enrolment Unit, Abuja, Musa Mohammed, said he was in Abia to ensure that the enrolment commenced seamlessly and geared toward realising the federal government’s renewed hope agenda.

Mr Mohammed said the implementation would be fool-proof and that the process had been digitised for payments to be made through the beneficiaries’ bank accounts.

The Abia programme manager, Okeziem Nwoko, said 90,000 of the one million and fifty thousand prospective beneficiaries captured in the state social register would be enrolled in the 17 local government areas.

Mr Nwoko said 22,850 Abia poor and vulnerable persons had already benefited from the federal government’s cash transfer programme in the past three to four years.

He said that Ohafia and Umuahia North had the highest number of beneficiaries, ranging from 13,000 to 14,000.

According to him, this is the first time the programme has been implemented in 17 LGAs.

He said that 265 facilitators were trained for the enrolment and that Ohafia and Umuahia North had the highest number.

He allayed the fear of possible fraud or sharp practices in the implementation process, saying, “We are not dealing with cash.”

(NAN)