Launch Of Nigeria’s COVID-19 Action Recovery & Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) On 20/01/2022

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SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NIGERIA COVID-19 ACTION RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC STIMULUS NG-CARES PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTED WITH THE WORLD BANK’S $750MILLION LOAN, ON THE 20TH OF JANUARY, 2022

PROTOCOLS

The Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme is a multi-sectoral programme designed to support vulnerable and poor Nigerians to provide immediate emergency relief to smallholder farmers and SMEs especially those that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The programme will build on the varied and extensive Federal Government interventions developed as part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan for taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and in response to the severe socio-economic fallouts of the pandemic especially those programmes and plans contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan.

The essential addition to the Federal Government’s programme is that the NG-CARES Programme will leverage on existing programmes in the States especially job creation programmes, wealth creation programmes and poverty reduction programmes at the community level such as State Cash Transfer Units, State FADAMA or Agriculture Development Agencies, State Job Creation Units MSME Support Units supported by the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

The World Bank Loan of $750million will be over a period of 2 years (2021-2023) and the intervention allocation to each State is $20million ex-ante and $15million to FCT, $15million for the Federal CARES Support Unit (FCSU).

The programme is to be driven by States using the PforR delivery mechanism, and in this case, there must be performance shown. The Federal Government also regards this programme as an important complement to its scaled-up number of beneficiaries of social transfer, subsidy and grants to support individuals, households and MSMEs in the multi-year Development Plan for 2021 – 2024 which was developed within the context of our response to the COVID-19 crisis and the Economic Sustainability Plan serving as the bridge.

In order to ensure successful programme implementation, the Federal Government will provide quality assurance, monitoring, capacity building and technical assistance to States and FCT on project activities and results.

Consequently, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Federal CARES Steering Committee (FCSC), the Federal CARES Technical Committee (FCTC) and the Federal CARES Support Unit (FCSU) to provide overall policy direction, technical support to all the States and FCT and advise Mr. President appropriately.

I, therefore, look forward to the prompt and effective implementation of the programme, both at the Federal and States levels. I also encourage you to fully deploy your wealth of experience and expertise to ensure the successful take-off and implementation of the NG-CARES programme.

Your Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now my special pleasure and privilege to formally launch the NG-CARES Programme and declare the commencement of the NG-CARES Programme implementation.

Thank you very much.