A’Ibom govt targets 600,000 households for intervention programmes

Akpan Umoh, Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Government says no fewer than 600,000 households have been captured in the social register for its various intervention programmes aimed at ameliorating economic hardship on the people.

Mr Emem Bob, Commissioner for Economic Development, disclosed this during the ministerial briefing in Uyo on Monday.

The ministerial briefing is tagged; “ARISE Score Card” and with the theme, “Food Sufficiency and Security: The Intervention and Sustainability Strategy of Governor Umo Eno.”

According to him, though the state Social Register has increased to 2.3 million people, the government is reaching out to the vulnerable poor through 600,000 households captured in the social register.

“The social register is well-structured, it’s structured in such a way that we have broken the villages, wards and Local Government Areas, these make up the state social register. And the total number of people we have in the social register is 2.3 million individuals.

“When you talk about households, we have about 600,000 households in the social register and that is what we have been using for various interventions in the state,” Bob said.

The commissioner added that the process for selection into the social register is very clear and transparent.

Bob said that the social register has been there for the past eight years and that the governor only ordered that it should be expanded to accommodate those who have fallen under the poverty line.

“How people are selected for the social register is very clear, it is a very transparent process in the sense that there is what we call Community Based Targeting. 

“Don’t forget that anything that involves the World Bank is very transparent; they are thorough.

“Community-Based Targeting is what was used for social register and we have State Organising Coordinating Units which work with the National Social Safety Nets Coordinator unit in Abuja.

“They work together and they have Staff across the local government. They go to villages, meet with village heads to pick these people,” he said.

On her part, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Offiong Ofor, said the state government had put in place a lot of intervention programmes to boost food production and reduce the prices of foodstuff in the state.

Offor urged the people to heed the governor’s call and return to farming, adding that farmers should form themselves into cooperative groups for easy accessibility.

“Food sustainability remains the priority of Gov. Eno’s administration. The first thing is that the Ministry of Agriculture merged with the Ministry of Rural Development which also has a component of cooperatives. 

“This was deliberate because the cooperatives system is the system that is driving food productivity anywhere in the world,” she said.