June 14, (THEWILL)- The Federal Government on Monday distributed engagement letters and tablets to 300 trained independent monitors of the National Social Investment Programme in Bauchi State.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Saadiya Farouk, who supervised the distribution, said over 5,000 independent monitors have been engaged, trained and equipped to monitor all the social intervention programmes under the ministry.
“As you are all aware, the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) was created by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 with the mandate of lifting citizens out of poverty through a number of Social Interventions which include the Job Creation Programme, N-POWER, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT), and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP)”, she said.
All the programmes, according to her, were moved to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in 2019 following the creation of the ministry and were being implemented in 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory.
Saddiya further said that, “You may recall that we flagged off the training of 5,000 independent monitors for the National Social Investment Programme in Abuja on Thursday 4th February 2021. The training was carried out across the Country including Bauchi State from February 2021 to April 2021.”
According to the Minister, “These devices are equipped with an Application that will be used to report on monitoring activities of the trained Independent Monitors. Let me also say that all devices to be used for monitoring the programme are locally made in Nigeria and the Monitoring Application was designed by an indigenous Company.
“The Application, which we called the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS), is a mobile and web-based Application designed for Monitoring the National Social Investment Programme. Using this Application, the Ministry sees a real-time report of activities of the Independent Monitors on the Field. We can view reports submitted and see the NSIP performance indicators by state.”
The Minister said that it will enable the Ministry to detect areas where there are challenges and provide greater visibility of activities happening in the field explaining that, “Essentially, it will help us deliver on our mandate and contribute to Mr President’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of Poverty.”
Each Independent Monitor is expected to monitor a designated number of beneficiaries of the National Social Investment Programme and they will be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000, and they must meet up to 80% of their deliverables monthly to be eligible for their stipend.
The Independent Monitors Engagement letters clearly articulate the scope of work which includes: Routine Monitoring of all programmes under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in their assigned LGA and provision of an evidence-based report on findings in the field.
It also includes the Submission of various categories of reports in accordance with the set timelines, attending all training and meetings as required by the Ministry as well as other duties that may be assigned by the Ministry.
The Minister warned that “Please be informed that, Independent Monitors are not allowed to assign their responsibilities to third parties. Every independent monitor will be held accountable by the Ministry for the task given to them. The Ministry reserves the right to disengage an Independent Monitor for misconduct or noncompliance with set guidelines and directives.”
Saddiya then urged the trained monitors to carry out the assignment with the utmost sense of patriotism, diligence, and sincerity saying that, “We at the Ministry will not accept anything short of the set standards. The duration of your assignment is for one year, from June 2021 to May 2022.”
Earlier, the State Focal Person of the Social Investment Program, Hajiya Amina Mohammed Katagum said that the state government is committed to the implementation of all intervention programs saying that the government has remained committed and supportive of the programmes.
Katagum explained that several people in the state are enrolled and enjoying the benefits of the various intervention programs while the government has not failed to remit its counterpart funding for the programs.
She then said that a total of 300 indigenes of the state are engaged as independent monitors assuring that they will be supported by the government to ensure that the program succeeded in the state.
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