COVID-19: Govs to share palliatives – FG

* Plans expansion of register to accommodate urban poor

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic has succumbed to the demands of state governors for them to be in charge of sharing palliatives to their citizens henceforth.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs. Sadiya Umar-Farouk, made this disclosure at the daily briefing of the task force, yesterday.

Governors of the 36 states of the federation had last week called on the Federal Government to allow them oversee the distribution of palliatives to cushion the effects of COVID-19.

The palliatives being distributed to the vulnerable are currently being handled by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) set up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The governors had made their request during their interaction with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, via teleconferencing.

Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, had in a communique released on behalf of the governors said: “The forum expressed appreciation to the private sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) set up by the Central Bank of Nigeria for their pledge to support states to increase their capacity to mitigate the spread of the virus and care for confirmed cases through the construction of isolation centres and the distribution of personal protective equipment to states.

“Members underscored the need for CACOVID to work directly with the states in the distribution of palliatives.”

He said the governors also “emphasised the necessity for stronger collaboration with states because they are best positioned to administer palliatives to mitigate the impact of the crisis, including the distribution of food and essential materials to households to help them cope with the expected loss of income and livelihoods.”

Responding to a question on whether government was thinking of changing the strategy of sharing the palliatives, Umar-Farouk said the country has a national response plan, with different stakeholders from the national to local government on board. She said all tiers of government were represented in the committee that distributes relief to the vulnerable.

“Going forward, we have decided to hand over this food relief to the state governors for onward redistribution to their citizens, the poor and vulnerable in the society. In fact, I have started that. I was in Lagos last week and Ogun states and I have handed over trucks of food relief to these governors.

“So far, we have reached out to the three affected states that have been locked down by the Federal Government, the two states plus the FCT. Also, we have deployed some food relief to two southeastern states of Imo and Ebonyi, specifically.”

On the disbursement of cash to the vulnerable poor, she said: “I have mentioned it before that this is an approval that has been in existence since 2016 and we are using the existing register. We will give them N5,000 per month but now that Mr. President has directed that we give two months’ advance, that is why we are giving this N20,000. Yes, it is a process that is really cumbersome but with transparency and accountability the ministry has already begun the digitalisation of this process.

“We have four pilot states that are on digital payroll so far and we are continuing with that. We hope that in our next month payment we will be able to at least have all the states adopt digital payment. It is is not a one-day off thing, it takes a process. And we are using mobile phones, wallets because the BVN of these beneficiaries exist but it is not all of them that are on the banking system. So we are looking at all these issues.”

On the possible expansion of the register, Farouk said: “Yes, I did mention that we are working on the possible expansion of the register and this is to inform you that we have started the process. Our main focus now is going to be on the urban poor because these are the people that have now become vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown.”