TheCable

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, says his administration’s efforts to reduce poverty have been “driven with infrastructural renewal, agricultural programmes, skills development and other initiatives”.

The governor said this during Edo State Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) office programme for the disbursement of start-up grants to 450 beneficiaries in Orhionmwon local government area of the state.

Roland Asoro majority leader, Edo house of assembly, represented him at the programme.

“As a government, we have been confronting the poverty challenge by helping the poor through provision and creation of job opportunities and empowerment programmes for our people,” he said.

He said two of the six thematic pillars of his administration’s policy framework are directly focused on the empowerment of the poor and vulnerable persons across the state.

“Since we assumed office, we have taken proactive measures to confront the monster called poverty. Most of our initiatives on infrastructural renewal, transportation, agriculture, real estate development, healthcare, public works and others have created jobs and generated wealth for our people,” he said.

The governor added that in the past three years, over 170,000 jobs have been created.

“We hope to surpass these figures. We anticipated 200,000 jobs but we know that before the end of this present administration, we will deliver on the 200,000, jobs as promised,” he said.

“The Conditional Cash Transfer Programme is critical to our overall poverty eradication plan. In this first phase, we targeted the poor and the very vulnerable households in the five selected Local Government Areas in the state. Based on data collected in the poverty ranking in the state, we identified 2,250 beneficiaries for the first phase and will ensure that they put to good use the funds that they have received.

“We have ensured the proper targeting and validation of all the beneficiaries of the programme to guarantee the integrity of the scheme. We are looking forward to scaling up the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme to cover more persons in Edo State.”