Kogiflame
About 50,000 rural poor people in Kogi State are expected to benefit from the Basic Service Infrastructure through grant to be disbursed by the Kogi State Government World Bank Assisted Kogi State Community and Social Development Agency as part of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme for the provision different Basic Service rural infrastructure.
The Agency which is one of the Delivery Platforms in Kogi State is implementing result area 1.4 (Basic Services Intervention in four Key sectors of Water provision, Health Care, Education and Nutrition.
The General Manager, Kogi State Community and Social Development Agency, Chief Dauda O. Momoh made this revelation at the Opening Ceremony of a Training for various Community Project Management Committees (CPMCs), Community Development Association members and Members of various project implementation Sub-committees drawn from communities.
The training has also been described as a Pre-Project Implementation Training for various Communities to equipped the people with requisites skills Project Management Committees (CPMCs), Community Development Association members and Members of various project implementation Sub-committees drawn from communities.
The CPMC members are to be responsible for the implementation of the project which the various communities have prioritized during the communitys Participatory Rural Appraisal visit to these communities by the Agency.
The communities that were trained in the Anyigba Centre are amongst the 26 communities whose project are scheduled to be flagged off immediately after this training ie Gboloko (Bassa), Takete (Bassa) Angwa-Agebe (Ankpa) and Abache (Ankpa)
The various rural projects were planned to reduce the poverty level of these communities and also cushion the economic impact necessitated by the dislocation caused by the locked down or other restrictions as a result of the Nigeria COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Dauda O. Momoh also praised the Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for his support to the NG-CARES Programme, he described the Governor as one of supportive Governors in Nigeria to this project targeted at moving hundreds of million out of poverty in the two-year programme cycle.
He also called on Benefiting Communities of the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) Intervention Project to focus on yielding results.
He said the intervention project focuses majorly on Health, Education, Water and Sanitation and Nutrition, stressing that commitment on the side of benefiting Communities at executing their approved projects was important.
Chief Momoh Dauda noted that the NG-CARES Program will serve as a succor to Communities as it will go a long way at cushioning the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the rural Communities.
“We have already conducted a separate training in Ochadamu Community and here we have other benefiting Communities including Angwa Ogede and Abache Communities in Ankpa LGA, Gboloko and Takete Communities in Bassa LGA
“This training is very important, we are going to outline what and what is expected of the benefiting Communities because basically, they are to implement the intervention projects themselves, we will only support them with funds and monitor the projects
“This intervention project is tagged Program for Result, this allows the government and the World Bank to spend money from their pulse and we have limited time to get these projects done so we will not use direct labour, we will need to do it the fasted way and yield the needed results
“We have use our CDD Approach to get the Projects that the Communities desires in the areas of Health, Education, Water and Sanitation as well as Nutrition
“At the end of the training, the Communities will be equipped enough on how to carry out their intervention Projects without issues because our Resource persons will be doing justice to the various topics lined up for the training” Chief Dauda explained.
The Kogi State CSDA Boss appreciated the State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello for his relentless efforts at making funds available for the Agency, describing him as a man with the interest of the people at the grassroots at heart.
“I can beat my chest anywhere even among my colleagues that what we are enjoying under the leadership of His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello in Kogi State, CSDAs in other States are not enjoying it at all
“His Excellency is always there for us and once we call on him, he is ready to see that CSDA Projects come to reality, he is always making funds available for us so we remain grateful to him we equally plead with him to sustain such magnanimous gesture towards us as an Agency” he said.
While speaking on the Overview of NG-CARES in Basic Service Intervention, the Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Ayo No-Parking, explained that the NG-CARES intervention projects is expected to be driven by existing and recognized Agencies, and commended Governor Bello for choosing all the three intervention programs.
Mr. No-Parking said the intervention program is targeted at the poor Communities and the poor vulnerable groups as beneficiaries and charged them to take the training serious.
On his part, Alhassan Ameh Richard, who spoke on Community/Group Development Plan and Project Management, said planning was important in the execution of the intervention project and enjoined benefiting Communities to as well, ensure proper documentation.
Richard highlighted Time, Scope, Quality and Cost as the major constraints of the project, charging them to live up to expectations at delivering the required results.
He also advised the participants to apply the knowledge gained at the training to execute their various projects, stressing that the training was majorly to equip them on project execution.
Some participants, Mrs. Habibat Adejoh from Gboloko in Bassa LGA and Comrade Suleiman Muhammed from Abache in Ankpa LGA, both praised the Federal and State government’s efforts at setting up NG-CARES and KGCSDA, stressing that the intervention projects will go a long way at reviving the hope of the people at the grassroots.
The Resource Persons also treated other topics including; Financial Management Guidelines and Group Work, Technical Detail, Construction and Supervision and Group Work, Procurement and Community Contracting and Group Work, among others.
Other presentations made at the Training include Overview of NG-CARES (including the Programme Development Objective (PDO)/Community Driven Development (CDD) Concept); Key issues in CDP/GrDP Formulation, Gender & Vulnerable Issues Mainstreaming; Financial Management, Bookkeeping; Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation; Community Contracting & Procurement; Operations, Maintenance and Project Sustainability; Environmental Management & Social Safeguard; Grievance Redress Mechanism; Grievance Redress Mechanism; Report Writing and Documentation amongst others.
