The federal government on Friday warned officials against extorting or intimidating potential beneficiaries of second phase of the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP 2.0) nationwide.
Hajia Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, gave the warning at a training on GEEP 2.0 Digitisation and Registration for Community Orientation and Mobilisation Officers (COMOs) in Lokoja.
She enjoined participants to ensure better and improved implementation process, stressing that its success would depend on the quality and quantity of data they generated.
She warned the officers against any infractions and extortions of the potential beneficiaries, noting that any erring official will be brought to book.
The minister noted further that the GEEP was a component of the federal government’s National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) designed to tackle poverty and hunger across the country.
She emphasised that the GEEP 2.0 was specifically designed to give access to credit for poor and vulnerable people, including persons living with disabilities.
She said that the training was to acquaint participants with the new criteria of registration as well as the new GEEP digitisation application.
She said that the ministry had successfully shortlisted GEEP beneficiaries in first phase of the programme across the 774 local government areas nationwide and currently on the process of cash disbursement.
Farouq added that tablets had been made available to the COMOs to be used for digitisation, aimed at ensuring seamless programme implementation.
Earlier, the state’s focal person of N-SIP, Mr Suleiman Onyekehi, said that more than 7,000 beneficiaries had been shortlisted and ready for cash disbursement out of more than 50,000 registered persons in GEEP Phase I across the 21 local government areas of Kogi.
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He said the GEEP beneficiaries were categorised under the MarketMoni, for vulnerable market women; TraderMoni, for petty traders; and FarmerMoni for local farmers to boost their various enterprises.
According to him, the beneficiaries of the MarketMoni and TraderMoni will receive loan disbursement of N50,000 each, while FarmerMoni will get N300,000 each.
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Onyekehi also warned the officials against extorting the beneficiaries, saying no infraction would be tolerated.
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for and the minister for ensuring proper and effective implementation of all the components of N-SIP across the country.
He also thanked Governor Yahaya Bello, for his support and tireless commitment to the full implementation of the N-SIP programmes which he said had benefitted Kogi citizens immensely.
The State Director of National Orientation Agency, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, urged the participants to take the training seriously and provide a credible data, saying no excuse would be tolerated.
Two of the participants, Hassan Garuba in Lokoja, and Mrs Grace Aminu in Ijumu Local Government Areas, commended the federal government for the GEEP implementation process, and promised to deliver credible and reliable data.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Onyekehi presented a tablet and other tools to each of the 21 participants on behalf of the minister.
(NAN)