Osun State Government says it has completed the process of opening registers for poor and vulnerable people in 12 out of 30 Local Government Areas of state.
Mr Femi Ifaturoti of the State Operation Co-ordination Unit for Youth Employment Social Operation (YESSO), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
Ifaturoti said having a unified register was part of the requirements for the execution of the scheme in states across the country.
“We have re-validated the register in 12 Local Government so far; and as soon as we are ready, beneficiaries will start taking the stipend.’’
He said that community-based single register of the poor and vulnerable people was aimed at identify the extreme poor in the state.
The coordinator said that the register would enable the identified people to benefit from social protection intervention of the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government is currently articulating a Reform Agenda for the Social Protection sector as a means of ensuring that the present unacceptable levels of poverty are reduced to the barest minimum.
“ Driving this reform agenda is the recently established National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO) under the Office of the Vice President.
“The office has the responsibility of coordinating all social safety net initiatives in the country,’’ he said.
Ifaturoti further explained that NASSCO would see to the opening of a registry , adding that the World Bank is backing it up with 300 million dollars in the implementing states.
According to him, YESSO is meant to provide increased opportunities for youth employment and social service delivery, as well as harmonise the implementation of social protection interventions.
The coordinator, however, said that the World Bank had adopted the Osun Youth Employment Scheme (OYES) as the platform for the implementation of YESSO in the state.
“OYES is a revolving volunteer’s scheme designed to eliminate the frustration and paralyzing effect of unacceptably high and seemingly intractable youth unemployment pervasive in Osun.
“The World Bank became interested in what we are doing in the first phase of OYES, but we lacked certain things such as modern methods of monitoring and evaluation.
“ We were doing the scheme using our own skill so they (World Bank) decided to build our capacity.
“OYES targets youths between the ages of 18 and 40 at the beginning, but the YESSO focuses on addressing the extreme poor and vulnerable,’’ he said.
“Our role through community target system now is to enrol beneficiaries in what is called single register that all social intervention programmes in the country will take beneficiaries from,’’ Ifaturoti said