by Kenneth OBIEH
The Delta State COVID-19 Action Recovery Economic Stimulus (D-CARES) Programme is an offshoot of the Nigeria CARES (NG-CARES) program which is a World Bank assisted emergency intervention aimed at supporting the State Government’s budgeted program of expenditures to deliberately respond to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The objective of the program is to expand access to livelihood support and food security services, provide grants for the poor and vulnerable households and promote recovery of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CARES intervention is a Program for Results (PforR) financing arrangement where State Governments are expected to provide the funds for the implementation of the program after which the States are to be reimbursed by the World Bank when agreed results have been achieved and verified.
The Program is being implemented across the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT. The overall management of the Program is superintended by the State CARES Steering Committee (SCSC) and the State CARES Coordination Unit (SCCU). The SCSC is headed by Dr. Barry Gbe, the Honourable Commissioner for Economic Planning and it comprises of Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries of the key sectorial Ministries and policy heads of Agencies directly associated with the D-CARES program.
Its major responsibility is to provide oversight and policy guidance for program implementation. The SCCU is headed by Lady Dr. Patience Ogbewe who is also the Secretary of the State CARES Steering Committee. The Unit is charged with the coordination of the D-CARES Program and is domiciled in the State Ministry of Economic Planning.
The D-CARES program is being implemented with existing Units/Agencies in the State which include; the State Cash Transfer Unit, Labour Intensive Public Workfare Unit, Livelihood Support Unit, Community Driven Development Social Implementation Unit, State Fadama Coordination Officeand the Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency.
The program is supporting the State Governments in three thematic Results Areas: Result Area 1 is centered on increased social safety net services that would provide consumption and livelihood support to a great number of the poor and vulnerable households.
Result Area 2 is focused on increasing food security and safe functioning of the food supply chains for poor and vulnerable households so as to support government interventions in mitigating against the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security to the poor and vulnerable households and facilitate the safe functioning of the food supply chain.
While Result Area 3 is to facilitate recovery and enhancing capabilities of MSEs by supporting government programs that allow MSEs to resume activities that may have been hampered since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
It is on record that Delta State was the first State to commence implementation of the NG-CARES program in the country when His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa flagged-off the disbursement of the operational support grants to 1818 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) under Results Area 3 component of the program on the 28th of September, 2021.
The Governor also officially flagged-off the implementation of activities under Results Area 1 and 2 on 5th August, 2022 where he pledged his commitment towards implementing all aspects of the D-CARES program.
To consolidate on the achievements of his administration in building a stronger Delta through human capital development by supporting businessmen and women to grow and expand their businesses, particularly the poor and vulnerable, His Excellency, the Governor on 20th February, 2023 flagged-off the 2nd phase disbursement of one-off operational support grants of N150,000.00 to 2,000 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
With the implementation of the Delta CARES Program, the State Government had positively provided support to 31,058 direct beneficiaries in the State. This figure has been validated and verified by the Independent Verification Agents (IVAs) engaged by the World Bank and Federal Government for this program.
Under the Cash Transfer initiative of the programme, 1628 aged individuals who are either chronically ill, urban poor or people with special needs, were selected from the State Social Register (SSR) and received bi-monthly stipends of N20,000.00 for a minimum of one year.
The Labour-Intensive Public Works component of the programme engaged 1303 poor and vulnerable youths from the State Social Register whose maximum qualification is Senior Secondary School Certificate (SSC). These individuals have been deployed to minor works sites across various communities in the State and are receiving monthly stipends of N20,000.00.The programme has also provided livelihood support grants to 968 poor and vulnerable youths and women with households Enterprises. These beneficiaries who were also selected from the State Social Register, were provided with soft skill training and given one-off grants ranging from N50,000.00 – N200,000.00 to support their Enterprises.
Under the Community Driven Development component of the program, 10 communities (Iriama Okpe LGA, Akugbene, Bomadi LGA, Otegbo, Ughelli South LGA, Obomkpa, Aniocha North LGA, Ugbokodo, Okpe LGA, Ogboko, Ndokwa East LGA, Abala – Obodo, Ndokwa East LGA, Benekrukru, Warri South West LGA, Ute-Gbeje, Ika North East LGA, Laboluosiegha, Burutu LGA received grants to fund 2 Micro projects in their communities at the total cost of 10 million naira each.
The micro projects include; drilling of boreholes and water extension, construction of class room blocks construction of Health Centres and provision of equipment, construction of school libraries, among others. A total 21,710 direct beneficiaries are benefiting from these micro projects.
The agricultural aspect of the program has successfully provided agricultural inputs and assets to 3640 farmers. While 1818 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) received operational support grants of between N150,000 to N750,000.00It is a thing of pride to note that from the assessment exercise conducted in all the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT, Delta State was ranked amongst the best in the implementation of the CARES Program.
Indeed, the Governor of Delta State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa is highly commended for providing the required resources and support that has made the program a huge success in the State.
THE FUTURE OF DELTA CARES.
Following the successes that have so far been recorded in the program implementation across the country, the World Bank and the Federal Government are finalizing the process of restructuring the CARES Program in a bid to accommodate more persons who have been impacted by other prevailing economic challenges such as the recent flood disaster to ensure that the program can fully achieve its objectives.With the restructuring of the program, the Delta CARES Program is targeting over 50,000 additional beneficiaries which include the poor, vulnerable and economically disadvantaged persons across the State.
Evidently, the antecedents of Governor Okowa’s administration in the SMART Agenda has laid a remarkable foundation for the sustenance of the CARES Program in Delta State. We are thus optimistic that with the MORE Agenda of Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori’s administration, the CARES program will be provided the required resources to achieve its new targets and even more.