More than 7,264 persons are to benefit from Federal Government’s Grant for Vulnerable Groups (GVG) programme in Borno.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, announced this on Wednesday while inaugurating the programme in Maiduguri.
Farouq said the programme started in 2020 as a grant for rural women to sustain the social inclusion agenda of president Buhari’s administration in line with its commitment to lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
She explained that Buhari, through his deliberate social inclusion agenda, had directed that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries must be women, while the remaining 30 per cent was for the youth.
She also said that Buhari directed that at least, 15 per cent of the total number of beneficiaries should be citizens with special needs, including Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and Senior Citizens in the state.
The minister, who noted that the target of the grant was to increase income and productive assets of the beneficiaries, said they were expected to use the grant to improve their productivity, create wealth, generate employment and improve their living standard.
Gov. Babagana Zulum thanked Federal Government for its sustained support to Borno, adding that the inclusion of persons with disability and aged persons was a laudable decision.
Zulum who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Prof. Isa Marte, said the state government on its part had spent billions in supporting vulnerable persons, particularly in rural areas.
Zulum said the measures had gone a long way in frustrating the recruitment drive of insurgents in rural areas.
Other programmes carried out by the minister in Maiduguri included the distribution of starter packs to 168 N-skills beneficiaries and digital payment for conditional cash transfer.
She further performed the onboarding of independent monitors and inauguration of the sensitisation to the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
