NG-CARES to enable states earn $20m in 2 years – World Bank

 The Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) says the programme will enable each state to earn at least 20 million dollars within a space of two years.

The Task Team Leader of NG-CARES, World Bank, Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on the sidelines of the launching of NG-CARES Programme Technical workshop, on Monday in Abuja.

“Each state should be able to earn 20 million dollars within a space of two years.

“I used the word earn because it is a programme for results approach. It is not as if the money will be given to the states and the state will now have to spend it, no,” he said.

Okunmadewa said that the programme was designed in such a way that states would spend its own money in the first in batch.

“Then Independent Verification Agent will go and look at the results and on the basis of that, the states will be reimbursed.

“The programme has already started in many states. It is not just starting because many states have already put their resources into the design and they have already started getting results and they are keeping it.

“We call it prior results. When the independent verification agents go there, they will count the results that they have achieved along with the ones that they are going to achieve.

“So many states and we are so happy about all of these states which indicates that they really want to help their poor and vulnerable.

“And those states are likely to be the fastest and they might even useful for others who are starting late.”

Okunmadewa said that the aim of the workshop was to familiarise all operators of the programme at the federal and state levels with the implementation implications of what had  been designed.

“When you start a programme like this, it is always important to bring everybody on board in the same level of understanding.

“They will look at every aspect, financial management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, gender and environment issues, technical support and others.”

Earlier, the Chairman, Federal Cares Technical Committee, Mr Aso Vakporaye, commended state governors, commissioners, state coordinators and heads of the delivery platform for cooperating with the federal team.

“The release of funds to state budgeted expenditures by some state governors to NG-CARES programme activities indicated that the programme has commenced implementation at some states, while others are matching up speedily to commence.”

Also, the National Coordinator of NG CARES, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, revealed that 20 states would start receiving funds to implement the programme provided their eligibility package was complete.

NG-CARES is a state operations with support from the World Bank with 750 million dollars credit to support the 36 states and FCT to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihood of poor and vulnerable households and micro-enterprises in the country.