By NAN
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq has urged State Focal Persons on National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) to ensure they implement and deliver benefits to beneficiaries across the country.
Farouq made the call in her keynote address at the NSIP Focal Persons’ Annual Strategic Review 2021 Meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Farouq was represented at the event by the National Coordinator of NSIP, Dr Umar Bindir.
The minister said the NSIP was a cluster of Social Investment Programmes, deliberately introduced by President Muhammadu Buhari and solely funded by the Federal Government to address social gaps, especially among the youths, poor and vulnerable nationwide.
“In its implementation for sustainability and effectiveness, Mr President purposely ensured a viable partnership between the Federal Government, and the 36 States and FCT to drive the agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030.
” As key representatives and appointees of your various state governments tasked with the onerous responsibility of overseeing the effective implementation of the NSIP, you hold the key of strengthening the relationship.
“I implore you all to rededicate yourselves to effectively discharge the task ahead of you in the course of implementing and delivering the inherent benefits of the NSIP to intended beneficiaries across the nation.
“However, I also urge you all to work hard towards building and strengthening this partnership between the Federal Government and your state governments for the overall benefit of every Nigerian,” Farouq said.
On the review meeting, the minister said it was designed to provide a veritable avenue for the ministry and NSIP leadership to meaningfully relate with strategic implementation partners, represented by the state Focal Persons and other critical stakeholders.
According to her, the review meeting is to also take stock of the entire spectrum of activities around effective implementation on all clusters of the NSIP with a view to drawing on the valuable lessons learnt to guide future implementation in 2022 and the coming years.
Farouq further explained that the meeting was to provide a welcome opportunity to congratulate each other in areas they did well, while also closely looking at specific areas and implementation modalities where they have faced challenges.
“All these will be done with a view to strategising towards further improvement on effective programmes implementation and impactful delivery”.
Similarly, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaji Bashir Nura Alkali represented by the Director of Finance and Accounts in the ministry, Mr Joseph Adaramoyi said similar in-house meetings have already been held at the level of the respective NSIP Cluster Heads and personal
“This expanded meeting with you is part of the ministry’s effort to expand the scope of its engagement with key partners and stakeholders in the implementation process.
“As a forward-looking ministry, we do not take these kinds of strategic reviews and purposeful engagements for granted, as we strongly believe they are very vital and also hold the key to achieving our primary objectives.
“We remain hopeful that the knowledge/experience shared and confidence built during this engagement will significantly help towards enhancing the effective delivery and desired impact of the programmes across the length and breadth of the federation,” Alkali stressed.
Meanwhile, Abdulkadir Nasir, the Chairman of the NSIP Focal Persons Forum assured the minister that they would support the ministry to deliver on it mandates on the NSIP.
“We are going to bring our governors on board to ensure that we achieve the objectives of the programme. I want to thank the National Coordinator, Dr Umar Bindir for recognising the Forum”.
NAN reports that the meeting brought the Focal Persons from all the states of the federation, including FCT. (NAN)