About 169 Households To Benefit From EDO-CARES Grants

No fewer than 169 Individuals from vulnerable households have been trained in Benin to benefit from the Nigeria CARES  (COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus  (N-CARES) code named EDO-CARES) grants in Edo.

Mrs Ifueko Alufohai, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Humanitarian Affairs announced this during one-day livelihood support training and orientation organised on Friday by the State Cash Transfer Unit (SCTU).

The beneficiaries, she said, would be given grants ranging from N20,000 to N200,000.

Alufohai explained that the N-CARES was an emergency Relief World Bank funded Programme put in place to ameliorate the adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on livelihoods, especially of the operators of businesses in the informal sector.

The Head, of State Cash Transfer Unit, Flora Bossey in a welcome address said the programme was designed for economically active youth and women.

“This programme is Disbursement Linked  Indicator (DLI 1.3) under the EDO-CARES livelihood support programme, one of the eleven DLI being supported by the State Government.

“The programme is taking place in two pilot local government areas of Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha in the state. The beneficiaries were selected from the state social register for the poor and vulnerable households.

“The state government has made it possible for the beneficiaries to receive grants to improve their businesses that were affected by COVID-19.

According to her, what we are doing here today is the first round of livelihood and soft skills training to support their businesses before the grants would be disbursed.

Mrs Precious Osunde, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries thanked the state government for the kind gesture and promised to expand her business with the grant.