FG trains GEEP local government desk officers in Ebonyi
The Federal Government has begun the training of local government desk officers for the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) in Ebonyi.
The two-day exercise, being organised by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, started on Saturday in Abakaliki.
It is aimed at training 13 community orientation and mobilisation officers as desk officers at the local government level.
The participants drawn from the National Orientation Agency are expected to drive the restructured GEEP.
Declaring the training open, the Minister, Sadiya Farouq, commended the Ebonyi Government for keying into the programme.
She urged the participants to take the training seriously, pointing out that the success of the programme in the state depended on them.
She said that so much had been committed into the programme by both the state and Federal Governments, hence the need to ensure success.
The Minister, represented by Mr Peter Aniebuka, an assistant director in the ministry, said the training was taken place simultaneously in the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) .
She urged the participants to leverage the training for a successful implementation of the programme, which is an aspect of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme.
“We pray that God will give you the strength and wisdom to ensure that it succeeds beyond expectation,” she said.
According to her, the programme targets vulnerable people, especially the rural poor, giving special consideration to widows, divorcees, youths, orphans and artisans, amongst others.
The minister further said that the ministry had packaged good course outline to better equip and enhance the capacity of the participants.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Human Capital Development in the state, Mrs Ann Anigwe, has lauded Gov. Dave Umahi for attracting the programme to the state.
The commissioner, who is the GEEP focal person in the state, regretted that the state had not benefitted from most of the Federal Government’s empowerment and social investment programmes, being enjoyed in other states.
She said the State Government would do everything to ensure successful execution of the programme.
She said that many traders, market women and farmers in the state, had been looking forward for the commencement of the initiative in the state.
“The governor has not been comfortable that Ebonyi people are not benefitting from most of the World Bank and Federal Government-assisted empowerment programmes.
“The governor has expressed commitment that everything happening in the social investment programme will be in Ebonyi so that the poor, the less privileged and vulnerable ones will always benefit from them,” she said.
Earlier, the State Director of NOA, Dr Desmond Onwo, thanked Umahi for attracting the GEEP to Ebonyi.
He urged the trainees to justify the trust reposed in them by ensuring the successful implementation of the programme in their various LGAs.
Onwo, represented by a Deputy Director in the agency, Mr Theophilous Nwakpo, said the trainees were carefully selected and gave assurance that the programme would be effectively driven by them.
“GEEP has so many programmes but the flagship programme are the trader moni, market moni and the farmer moni and this has been happening in other states.
“We don’t know what they are but thank God that through the help of our governor, we are having them.
“The hallmark of the whole initiative is financial inclusion and you are here to receive training for the effective implementation of the programme at the grassroots,” Onwo said.
GEEP enables beneficiaries to access a refundable loan of N50,000 to N300,000 to finance their small businesses and farm enterprises.
