Oyo State Gov announces not less than 3,300 households to benefit from cash transfer

The Oyo State Government announced on Tuesday that no fewer than 3,300 households would benefit from its COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus programme for the poor and vulnerable residents of the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade, disclosed this in a statement made available to PUNCH Online on Tuesday.

According to Oyelade, the vulnerable persons, comprising disadvantaged individuals ranging from the aged, chronically ill, physically challenged, urban poor, and widows, were drawn from the 33 Local Government Areas of the state.

Oyelade said, “It should be recalled that in 2019/2020, a global pandemic called COVID-19 ravaged the world, with a large proportion of citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable households/individuals, facing challenges on multiple fronts such as loss of labor, income, food, and security, etc.

“The sum of N10,000 per month is to be given for a year to the Social Transfer component beneficiaries to aid their consumption and reduce stress. The transfer, which is card-based, will be paid N20,000 bi-monthly.

“The beneficiaries were drawn from all the 33 LGAs in the State from the data mined from the State Operation Coordinating Unit. A cash transfer of N10,000 per month to the beneficiaries in the 3rd phase of the program will commence after the ongoing training of the facilitators.”

He further explained that the OY-CARES program was an emergency operation from the Federal Government, which was adopted by the Oyo government and designed to support budgeted programs of expenditures and interventions at the state level.

He concluded that the programme would target “existing and new vulnerable and poor households in the agricultural value chain, as well as Micro and Small Enterprises affected by the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”