Sunday, 4th July 2021: The Federal Government has distributed 49 mobile devices (Tablets) for effective monitoring of the National Social Investment Programme, (N-SIP), in Cross River.

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, on behalf of the government, also handed out engagement letters to the monitors in the state.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ms. Sadiya Umar-Farouq, distributed the tablets and letters to the trained monitors on Saturday in Calabar.

Umar-Farouq, who was represented by the Director of Human Resource in the ministry, Mr Babatunde Jaji, said that the N-SIP programme was aimed at poverty reduction.

She said that the programme was designed to promote sector linkages, synergies and ensure partnerships with critical stakeholders throughout the country.

The minister explained that N-SIP has four component programmes which include: the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme, N-Power and the National Cash Transfer Programme.

She maintained that in a bid to achieve the set goals and objectives of each of the programmes, the ministry believed that adequate monitoring was important.

“The engagement of independent monitors for N-SIP is one of the strategies to ensure that these programmes achieve the desired results.

“Although not new, the ministry has methodically reviewed the modalities and design of previous engagements to build robust and proactive strategies for monitoring the programmes,’’ the minister said.

According to her, the independent monitors will supervise, monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality in schools, households and market clusters on a routine basis, using a standardised reporting tools.

“This will help the ministry to measure the impact of these programmes.

“I wish to state that the initial target was to train 5,000 independent monitors across the 36 states and Abuja, but 4,452 have been successfully trained.’’

Mr Gabriel Okulaja, the Team Lead, National School Feeding Programme in Cross River urged the independent monitors to take the assignment seriously.

Okulaja said that about 1,000 schools were currently benefiting from the programme in the state.

The state focal person of N-SIP, Mrs Blessing Egbara, who is also the Commissioner for Humanity and Social Welfare in Cross River, commended the Federal Government for the initiative and sustaining the programme.

She said that the tablets would strengthen the independent monitors with requisite instruments in the performance of their assigned responsibilities.

One of the trained monitor, Mr Hilary Asu, said that the tablet would help him to collate accurate data in his area of coverage with a view to achieve the aim of the programme.