Over One Hundred and Forty benefits from Federal Government Grant in Oyo

In Oyo State, a total of  One hundred and forty seven poorest of the poor have benefited from the Federal Government livelihood program in two Local Government Areas of the State.

This was disclosed by the Livelihood Officer from National Cash Transfer Office, Abuja, Mrs. Olumuyiwa Babaranti while on Post Disbursement Monitoring of Productive Grant to beneficiaries of livelihood in Oyo State.

According to Mrs. Babaranti the sum of One hundred and fifty thousand naira (#150,000) grants was disbursed to all the beneficiaries after series of trainings, coaching and mentoring in order to establish a business of their choice that can bring a steady source of income to the family and improve their livelihood.

The team was at Ojegbolu community in Atiba Local Government Area where she advised beneficiaries to invest more into business, think wide, continue to unite with their groups through constant meetings and contribution among themselves in order to boost their investments.

According to the Coordinator of Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Oyo State Mr. Oladipo Ezekiel, the beneficiaries were drawn from six States, each from the  geopolitical zones of the Country  and they include; Oyo, Anambra, Bauchi, Niger, Cross River and Jigawa State.

Mr. Oladipo explained that the selection of Local Government and States for piloting of Livelihood component of Conditional Cash Transfer Programme was done by the National Cash Transfer Office, Abuja. The two Local Governments for piloting of the livelihood component are Atiba and Atisbo.

He stressed further that the National Social Investment Program of the Federal Government is world bank assisted with 4 cardinal points of Conditional Cash Transfer, Homegrown School Feeding, N-Power and Government Enterprises Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

According to some of the beneficiaries of the program, they have invested the grant in coal, ponmo, soft drinks, Rentals, Palm _ oil, tailoring, maize selling businesses  and agric farming while others engaged in goats, dogs and poultry farming .

One one the beneficiaries, Mrs. Iyabo Morakinyo, a widow expressed her joy and appreciation to the Federal Government for the life changing experience she has been enjoying since the inception of the program whereby she has been collecting #5,000 every month before she became part of the hand-picked beneficiaries of this one off grant of #150,000 . 

Another beneficiary, Mrs. Akeem Raimo, a mother of seven children was trained under the program in nylon cutting and selling and has invested her grant on a power generating set, machine for cutting and rolls of nylon for her business.