Jigawa Launches N1.7 Billion COVID-19 Stimulus Programme

By Mohammed Abubakar, Dutse

Governor Muhammad Abubakar Badaru has lunched the Covid-19 action recovery and economic stimulus programs known as J-Cares programme in the state.

Badaru, who was represented by his deputy Umar Namadi said, the NG- CARES was initiated by the federal government, assisted by World Bank and implemented in partnership and collaboration with state government.

According to him, the programme was initiated to address the socio-economic disruptions and hardship caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which according to World Bank extreme poverty rate in Nigeria is likely to up by couple of percentage points, while number of extreme poor is likely to increase by 10 to 15 million by 2022.

He maintained that the programme would revive and expand access to means of sustainable livelihoods, support food security services, and provide grants for poor and vulnerable households and businesses.

According to him, “In it’s efforts to ensure the successful implementation of the program, Jigawa government has injected the sum of one billion naira into the program to compliment the seven hundred million naira so far released to the state making the total of N1.7 billion.

“Today’s event is to symbolically launch the J-CARES grants disbursement and other support services to be provided under it’s various platforms”, he said.

He then commended the members of J-CARES steering committee, the co-ordinating unit and the various delivery platforms for ensuring the success of the programme