Nigeria‘s COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme (NG-CARES) says it has disbursed N35.3 billion to the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to boost its performance in the country.
The NG-CARES National Coordinator, Dr. Abdulkarim Obaje, announced this at the training for Monitoring and Evaluation Officers, Heads of Delivery Platforms in all states, and Heads of State Care Coordination Units, on Friday in Abuja.
Obaje said that the resources were an advance to all the states, highlighting that the program was a performance-based program within the World Bank financing framework.
The coordinator said that the advance, which ranged from N500 million to N1.3 billion, was given to all the states of the federation.
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“Implementation has started in many states as we speak, some states already have results because even outcome achievements prior to the actual adoption of the project are considered part of what will be reimbursed when the Independent Verification Agents visit the states.
“As we speak today, all 36 states of the federation and FCT are now effective and resources have been disbursed to all 36 states in the amount of N35.3 billion.
And this advance goes from N500 million to N1.3 billion and this has been given to all the states as we speak.
“So results with effect from 2020 are also considered, so we have a lot of those results in participating states.”
Obaje, however, said that although not all states, many states have previous results, this will be considered for reimbursement each time the Independent Verification Agent comes.
He said the breakthrough was supposed to allow states to push through enough results so that each time the Independent Verification Agent came to verify that their DLI was achieved, then the resources would be available to do more.
He said the resources coming into the state today are progress, adding that NG-CARES encouraged all state governments to add more resources.
“Therefore, the price money and profits to be made after the evaluation of an independently verified agent will be abundant to allow them to continue with the implementation.
“It is a two-year program, it is expected to end in June 2023 and there is still a lot to do, so we need a lot of resources to allow the states to come together.
“What we care about is the quality of the data, and the integrity of the data that is generated at the state level is of the utmost importance to us.”
Obaje said that the objective of the training was to provide the target participants with first-hand knowledge on the operationalization of the Monitoring and Evaluation Manual developed in conjunction with the states.
“We train them on how the manual will work, what are the templates to use; what is the regularity of the reports, how should the reports be sent to us, and most importantly, we are now in an ICT-driven world.
“So we have a high dose of information technology integration in data reporting and all that.
“So we take them through software that has been designed to speed up the process of reporting to the state and the federal government for consolidation.”
Earlier, Federal Cares Technical Committee Chairman, Mr. Aso Vakporaye had reiterated that the programme was aimed at improving the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable and poor.
” The unique component of the program is a program for the result, so it is not like the usual take money and go. First, you work and then you show your results.
“After evaluation and verification, you will be reimbursed for what you have done.”
Speaking on behalf of the participants, Lady Patience Ogbewe, the Head of State Care Coordination Units, Delta State, said the workshop had exposed all participants to how to generate credible data for effective program implementation.
