Anambra State Community and Social Development Agency (ANCSDA) have formally kicked-off the Orientation and Enrollment of Labour-intensive Public Workfare (LIPW) beneficiaries across the 21 LGAs in the State under the Anambra State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (AN-CARES) Programme.
News Echo reports that the LIPW is one of the components of AN-CARES Programme being implemented in the State by ANCSDA. Its Objective is to provide immediate employment opportunity in the social sector, to address the emergency constraints of loss of labour-income among the poor and vulnerable households as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event which took place at Abagana, Njikoka Local Govt Area on Wednesday is targeted to enrol one thousand seven hundred and fifty five vulnerable, skilled and unskilled youths in Anambra.
In his opening remarks the General Manager ANCSDA, Mr Chudi Mojekwu, in welcoming all the beneficiaries informed them that the criteria for selection of beneficiaries were unemployed youth and women selected from the State Social Register (SSR) whose age must be between 18 and 45years and with education qualification of SSCE or below.
He informed that part of the duties of LIPW Beneficiaries is to diligently perform the assigned work at least 4 hours daily and 5 days a week, work harmoniously with the leader and other members of the team to achieve the objective of the programme, to attend and actively participate in Life skill trainings on designated days and among others.
According to him, it is part of the Soludo’s solution and promise to ndi Anambra to create job opportunities for the youths.
Mr Mojekwu however, stressed that the programme as newly introduced has posed some challenges such as low motivation from targets beneficiaries. He noted that there is Orientation ongoing to inform the people on what we intend to do and achieve.
In her address on-behalf of the State Government, the HC MEDP, Mrs Chiamaka Nnake, disclosed that the targets of LIPW in the State are unemployed and unskilled youths and women with education qualification of SSCE or below who according to her have lost Labour-income owing to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic.
She informed that the LIPW is very well in line with the Transformation Agenda of Mr. Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo.
It is part of “Soludo Solution”, a Solution that is fundamentally focused on creating a prosperous future for the youths, empowering them to function and be productive.
The HC noted that since the primary needs of the youths are jobs, jobs and more jobs even if temporary, the Soludo administration is setting aside over Sixty-five million naira (N65, 000,000) as initial grants to be transferred to deserving youths and women under the LIPW.
In their seperate speeches, Mrs Orjiako Ekene from Ukpo, dunukofia local government area and Mrs Evelyn Nneke from Enu-Abomimmi Enugu ukwu thanked the governor for providing such opportunity for them at the community level. “I appreciate Soludo becuase we really suffered during the Covid, food was scare and we lost our jobs, even death of loved ones.
I also give God the glory for this privilege given to us. I intend to make judicious use of the finance to ensure my family is taken care of”, Mrs Nneke, added.
Other highlights of the event were the orientation and enrollment of the LIPW Beneficiaries which involved the registration, and data-capturing by the Payment Service Providers (PSP) which is the paying bank for the LIPW.