98,000 pregnant women got N392million in 6 years- UKAID

The UK Department for International Development through the Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP) has supported about 98,000 pregnant and lactating women in Jigawa and Zamfara states with N4000 monthly stipends in the last six years.

The Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP) implemented from 2013-2019 by Save the Children and Action Against Hunger provided monthly unconditional cash transfers to pregnant and lactating women from pregnancy until the child is two years.

Country Manager Oxford Policy Management Femi Adegoke during the Dissemination of the Endline findings of the ODGP recently in Abuja  disclosed that the aim of the project was to reach children in their first 1000 days being the most significant part of a child’s life.

He pointed out that studies have shown that of the 700million world’s poverty population, 385million Children are living in poverty and the bulk of the them are in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said the pilot project executed in 6 communities in the two states have helped reduce stunting  in the benefiting communities adding that the cash transfers had positive impact on household food security, dietary and household expenditure.

The CDGP Programme Manager Ramatu Buadah-Aliyu put the project cost to about N11billion which was given out in cash transfers. She said  the aim was to address the problem of stunting and malnutrition in children as Nigeria has one of the highest rate of malnourished children mostly in the Northern part of the country.

She said “we wanted to use cash and knowledge to address the problem of stunting in the country and at the end of the programme we notice that there has been so much improvement in livelihood activities among women in the communities “

The Representative of the Department for International Development (DFID) Alexis Stevens in his remark stressed the need for social protection to unlock Human capital challenge saying there is still more to be done to reach about 87million Nigerians leaving below poverty line.

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