PUNCH NEWS

No fewer than 9,000 vulnerable households from three local government areas of Bayelsa State have been registered for the Federal Government’s National Cash Transfer  Program also known as Household Uplifting Program.

The Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) Manager, State Cash Transfer Unit, Mr Bright Abasi, disclosed this during a town hall meeting in Yenagoa to sensitize the state HUP beneficiaries on channels of resolving complaints arising from the social scheme.

The event was organised by the Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organizations Forum (BANGOF) in partnership with the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ).

The national cash transfer programme is one of the four programme areas under the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government that provides monthly stipends of N5,000 to the poor and vulnerable.

Abasi, who listed the three pilot local government areas as Ekeremor, Nembe and Southern Ijaw, admonished the beneficiaries to use the established GRM to seek redress over issues they would encounter in course of the programme.

He stated in his presentation that fraud involving staff, verbal and physical abuse by both staff and beneficiaries, fraud by beneficiaries and extortion of money, constituted “serious complaints that will attract serious consequences to the offender.”

Abasi, who noted that the beneficiaries would make compulsory monthly savings, further said, “Then, there could be payment issues whereby your money is not complete, and then there could also be issues of your name not entering the register.

“These are the things that the beneficiaries need to know. We made them understand these grievances are there and the channels of redressing them.”

According to him, the programme officially started in Bayelsa in 2018 but the beneficiaries were registered in 2019, stressing that “they will be paid in arrears from about July up until now because we have registered two batches.”