BEVERLY HILLS, May 13, (THEWILL) – The Cross River State Government has commenced a comprehensive enumeration of all poor and vulnerable households across the state.
The exercise is part of the nationwide Rapid Response Register of the Federal Government under the National Social Safety Net Programme.
The programme targets mostly urban poor households and individuals pushed into poverty by the pandemic; and it forms part of a partnership between the Federal Government and the World Bank.
Giving details of the exercise in Calabar, Chris Anake, the State Operations Coordinator said 108 enumerators had been trained for the exercise.
According to him, the exercise would be largely community-driven because the community knew what made people poor and the programme had nothing to do with politics, politicians or party affiliations.
He said: “108 enumerators have been trained across the state for the action to get more persons correctly registered into the Poor and Vulnerable Register and we are targeting 30,000 households.
“Due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, some self-sustaining, low-income households in semi-urban areas have come under hardship due to the loss of income.
“The Federal Government is aware of these vulnerabilities brought by the pandemic and in partnership with the World Bank is targeting semi-urban households nationwide for some form of support.
“Households for the Rapid Response Register will be identified via a combination of Satellite Technology, SMS-enabled registration and physical verification on ground.
“We will also deploy a community-driven approach; and politicians are avoided completely.
“Communities determine the criteria that make people poor, we undertake community profiling to ascertain the things that make people poor in each community.”
He also disclosed that the state has one of the least numbers of persons in the National Single Register of Poor and Vulnerable Persons and this would help address this and also reduce the poverty index of the state.
The programme is domiciled with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management.
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