In line with the federal government’s determination to reduce poverty using the four clusters of social investment programmes, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has flagged off distribution of tablets to independent monitors in South South to ensure systematic monitoring of National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) in the zone.
The Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who was represented by the Director, Human Resources in the ministry, Jaji Babatunde, flagged-off the exercise in Calabar at the weekend and also gave appointment letters to the monitors, saying that Cross River was chosen for the South South zone.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Bashir Nura Alkali, whose address was also read by Mr Jaji Babatunde, said, “In a bid to achieve the set goals and objectives of each of the programmes, the ministry believes that adequate monitoring is important. The engagement of Independent Monitors for NSIP, therefore, is one of the strategies to ensure that these programmes achieve the desired results.
“While the engagement of Independent Monitors is not new, the Ministry has methodically reviewed the modalities and design of previous engagements to build more robust and proactive strategies to monitor the Programmes. The Independent Monitors will supervise/ monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality in schools, households and market clusters on a routine basis, using standardized reporting tools which have been made available in hard and electronic copies. This would help measure the impact of these Programmes.
“I wish to state here that the initial target was to train 5,000 Independent Monitors (IM’s) across the 36 states and FCT. However, 4,452 were successfully trained. In addition to the training on the manual data collection tools, which would serve as a working tool for the Independent Monitor, the Ministry has automated the process through development of a mobile and web-based application called the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS) for an efficient and effective process of data collection and reporting.
“Each Independent Monitor is given a unique user ID and Password to gain access to the platform which they will enter data. The M&E team of the Ministry and the State Programme Team will monitor the platform to determine if the Independent Monitors are collecting timely, complete and correct data.
“The trained Independent Monitors will be oriented on the use of the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS) application. It is my hope that the IMs pay attention and learn as the team guides you through the process of using the SIMIS.
“I must appreciate Mr. President for his regime’s persistent efforts to fight poverty and unemployment in our land through the implementation of NSIP. The role and efforts of our indefatigable Honorable Minister to achieve Mr. President’s 2030 target of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty is highly esteemed.”
In her remarks, the Cross River State Focal Person on NSIP, Mrs Blessing Egbara, charged the independent monitors to show commitment and passion for the job since the assignment “is meant to give a lease of life to the handicapped and vulnerable members of the society.”
