Gombe Gov Launches COVID-19 Action Recovery, Economic Stimulus

...8.5b budgeted to support 288,700 households, farmers, small scale businesses Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has stated that the newly launched COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (GO-CARES) aligns with his administration human capital development initiative as encapsulated in the 10-year Development Agenda for Gombe State (DEVAGOM). The governor, who stated this at the commencement of the project in Kuri, Yamaltu Deba Local Government Area of the state on Wednesday, added that the emergency recovery programme would support government’s budgeted programme of expenditures and interventions specifically designed to expand access to livelihood support, food security and provide succour to the poor and vulnerable persons in communities whose lives, businesses, jobs and means of livelihood have been distorted by the pandemic. Yahaya observed that "being a domestication of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery Stimulus Programme (NG-CARES), the programme would help expand access to livelihood support, food security services and the provision of grants to poor and vulnerable households and firms following the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic." He explained that the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and livelihood of the people cannot be over emphasised as governments across the world suffered economic recessions with livelihoods disrupted and millions of jobs lost in an unprecedented manner, which makes the CARES programme not only timely but essential. Yahaya remarked that the challenges of COVID-19 and the global economic meltdown have made his administration to be more strategic and focused in its drive to put the state on the path of sustainable economic development. He said: "Today’s ceremony is a major step taken to put the vulnerable groups that were worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic on the path of recovery and growth, with the disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries who have met the World Bank's stipulated eligibility criteria. These groups and individuals shall receive livelihood grants, social transfers, and soft loans as well as improved access to basic services in order to support economic recovery, boost food production and enhance livelihood of the people." The governor said in order to ensure maximum benefit from the programme, existing state-level delivery platforms with a track record of generating positive human capital development and economic returns for beneficiaries would be used for the implementation of the interventions. These platforms, he explained, would be reinforced with a state level Steering Committee comprising political and technical heads of key sectoral ministries and policy heads of agencies constituted to provide oversight and policy guidance for the programme in order to achieve greater results and the overall programme development objective. "The programme has a budgeted sum of about N8.5 billion which is targeted towards supporting not less than 288,700 beneficiaries in the two-year duration of the programme. From this amount, N3.4 billion will be to support poor and vulnerable households with grants and basic services, another N3.4 billion shall be used to support our farmers with farm inputs in order to increase food production and enhance performance of the food supply value chain. The sum of N1.7 billion shall be disbursed as grants to MSMEs to support their operational activities and help them recover from the huge losses suffered during the pandemic." The Chairman of the state Steering Committee for GO-CARES, Muhammad Gambo Magaji, said the stimulus would benefit the most vulnerable households, farmers, business men and women as well as artisans. Magaji, who is also the state Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, revealed that the project is in collaboration with the World Bank but is fully funded by the Gombe State Government.