Over 6,370 beneficiaries of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme in Kwara State have said the two-year intervention scheme has impacted positively on them.

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke at different fora in the state, said the intervention could bring poverty and hunger down to the barest minimum in the state if sustained for a longer period.NG-CARES is a scheme specially designed to address the problem of hunger and poverty among the less-privileged people in Nigeria and other third world countries.

It is a support programme to state governments by the federal government, through the World Bank, to cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the poor and vulnerable in the country.

During the monthly monitoring exercise to Kaiama and Baruten local government areas of Kwara State, an NG-CARES stakeholder in Kaiama, Mal. Idris Salihu, described NG-CARES as a succour to youths in the area.

He said the scheme has addressed the problem of youth restiveness in Kaiama and other neighbouring communities.Salihu, who is the community development officer (CDO) and the desk officer for the programme in Kaiama local government, commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for facilitating the programme and believing in its potential to unlock the doors to economic prosperity in the state.

He said the NG-CARES programme in the area had impacted positively on the lives of the beneficiaries, just like the previous intervention programmes like YESSO and cash transfer.Addressing the community development officers (CDOs) from the 16 LGAs at a recent meeting in Ilorin on the activities of LIPW in the state, the state’s commissioner for environment, Mallam Shehu Usman, charged the CDOs supervising the beneficiaries of the labour intensive public workfare to brace up and put in more efforts to achieve an appreciable level of success for the scheme in the state.

He commended the smooth working relationship existing between the staff of LIPW delivery platform and the CDOs, which he described as a good development for the progress of the NG-CARES programme in the state. The technical head, labour intensive public workfare, Alhaji Shamsideen Aregbe, said the LIPW scheme has changed the story of 6,373 poor and vulnerable individuals across the 16 local government areas in the state.

He said the scheme has taken some of the beneficiaries out of poverty and now living better and more comfortably in their various localities.