TheCable

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has introduced a cash programme designed to assist Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) in the north-east.

Denes Benczedi, the ICRC communication coordinator, said this in an interview with NAN in Abuja.

He said the cash programme, also known as economic security programme, was implemented in the first quarter of the year.

He said the programme consists of vouchers for agro-programmes, mobile phone cash transfer, foods and non-food items, distribution of seeds and fertilisers, among others.

“Basically, we give cash to IDPs which is easier with less logistics rather than to transport trucks of foods; the cash also helps them to purchase other items they need,” he said.

“Fifty-seven thousand people benefited from the cash last year and this year, it is much bigger with a new strategy in the transfer of cash.

“The cash is either through bank cards which are distributed to them and a credit which they use to get the cash. Mobile phones are made available with a chip inside which can be taken to a shop to purchase items”.

Benczedi said some of the states that benefited from the programme were Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe and Plateau.

He said the mobile technology cash transfer was first introduced in Borno and Yobe with 27,000 households comprising of 162,000 individuals, benefitting.

Benczedi said that the organisation also designed programmes for widows including micro credit initiative for artisans among the IDPs and distribution of food vouchers.

“We have programmes for widows where they are given food vouchers but we realised some of them were very dynamic to do more, so we began to support them with micro-credit,” he said.

“Items produced by them are sold, which is a way of making them independent.”

The coordinator said that the organisation had rehabilitated 12 primary healthcare centres across the country as well as in the north-east.

He said that the organisation supplied medical commodities at the centres and trained medical personnel at the clinics, to ensure that they delivered quality healthcare services for the beneficiaries.

He added that the IDPs would benefit from the healthcare centres in communities closest to their camps.