The Akwa Ibom state government has commended World Bank and Federal Government for approving $20 million CARES-P COVID-19 action recovery economic stimulus programme for the state.
The Commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport, Mr Akan Okon, gave the commendation while interacting with newsmen in Uyo on Tuesday.
Okon said the programme was to lift the vulnerable poor embattled by Covid-19 pandemic across the state.
He commended the State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, for setting up a committee on June last year to oversee the programme, adding that the state was one of the few other state to be benefitted from the programme.
Okon, who is the vocal person for the state, said that with the time table provided by the World Bank, it was certain that by March all modalities would have been put in place to ensure the disbursement of the funds.
Cash transfer is one of the components of CARES-P COVID-19 action recovery economic stimulus programme to alleviate the poor after the COVID-19.
“Looking at the area of cash transfer to the poorest of the poor, using the existing social register that we have in the state and alot of families who lost their source of income would be supported so that they can come out of their present situation and it is done through out the 36 states and it is done in conjunction with Federal Government and World Bank.
“What the world bank has done was to ensure that every state would be entitled to the sum of 20 million dollars.
“A lot of paperwork has been done by the state government to meet the criteria of World Bank. And you know that in our state we are very transparent in what we are doing and that made it very easy that when we presented our documents, it was able to pass through the bench mark that was set.
“I want to tell you that this programme, we are working with the time table provided by the World Bank and is expected that by the end of March everything would have be put in place so that the people would begin to benefit from the programme.
“However, it is only when you meet the eligibility criteria that this can happen and I am happy to say that Akwa Ibom State on the June 2nd, 2020 the Governor inaugurated a committee to look into how the state can benefit from this programme and I want to thank all the members of the committee. We are among the very few state to benefit from this programme,” he said.
Similarly, Okon also thanked governor Emmanuel for investing greatly in the area of agriculture to help ameliorate the Covid-19 pandemic on farmers in the state.
“In the area of agriculture, we know that any country that can not feed its citizens is in trouble, as a result of that, the Governor who is so passionate about agriculture is working tirelessly.
“Before now things like tomatoe, onion, cucumber among others were not grown in Akwa Ibom State, but now we are harvesting and the people are buying into the Dakaada philosophy of the governor.
“So through this, the government is looking at ensuring that area under cultivation of the various crops that can grow in the state is an encouragement to our people to have farming implement and improved seedlings for those crops so that that there can enough food for our people,” he said.
