The Kwara State Government has been commended for its efforts in the Covid-19 Action Recovery Economic Stimulus (KWARA NG-CARES) programme.
Speaking during the fourth round of the Independent Verification Assessment (IVA) for KWARA NG-CARES in Ilorin on Friday, the IVA Team Leader for Kwara NG-CARES, Stiegler Services Limited, Mr. Baba Ibrahim, said the state surpassed its objective, thus contributing to its socioeconomic growth.
KWARA NG-CARES is a state-budgeted program that uses the Program for Results (PforR) model to deliver goods and services to poor and vulnerable groups.
Ibrahim, who said the delivery is intended to cover all 16 local government areas of the state, adding that it aims to provide extensive support to the poor, vulnerable groups and people living with disabilities, as well as small and microenterprises. -Scale companies (SMEs) for social and economic boost.
He also said that the IVA was intended to further assess the level of performance and results generated so far by the State Delivery Platforms, which is the last round of the NG-CARES 1.0.
Ibrahim praised the level of state compliance with the NG-CARES implementation protocol and the achievement of results in the previous verification since its inception over the years.
The team leader assured the State that the team would ensure that due diligence and professionalism were applied in every area of ​​the exercise to achieve a better outcome for the State.
He further commended the achievements of the project already implemented, particularly on Delivery Platform 1.4 being implemented by the Kwara State Social and Community Development Agency.
Ibrahim said the program exceeded the target and the purpose really reached the intended beneficiaries.
He, however, reiterated that the progress recorded in the state NG-CARES underlines Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq's committed passion for making life bearable for the poor, vulnerable groups and all citizens.
Earlier, the Kwara NG-CARES State Coordinator, Mr. Olatunde Ibiyinka, said the implementation of the program began in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the program was intended to provide aid to the indigent, vulnerable groups and businesses that suffered losses due to the effect of the pandemic.
Mr. Ibiyinka, who is also the State Director of the Debt Management Directorate of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, sought support and cooperation from the Evaluation Team, especially in identifying beneficiaries of the program on the ground.
He said this was imperative as there is a time lag between the time when some of these interventions actually took place and the time of the VAT visit, especially, with respect to beneficiaries of DLI 3.2 business grants.
The NG-CARES state coordinator said the exercise, which was carried out over five days, was aimed at taking care of documentary review and evaluation of documents produced and submitted to the Delivery Platforms.
Mr. Ibiyinka said this refers to the implementation of the project, adding that the on-the-spot verification visits and debriefing exercise currently underway are the final part aimed at concluding the exercise.
The state coordinator thanked the IVA team for their in-depth and in-depth evaluation during the week, assuring that the state will not give up on maintaining the good momentum and will improve to surpass the record achieved in subsequent projects.