Date: 2019-07-08

World Bank No fewer than 19,200 poor and vulnerable people will be taking part from the World Bank empowerment programme in Kwara State. The beneficiaries will cut across all the 16 local government area of the state and the programme will last for one year, after which they are expected to start a petty trade from whatever they are able to gather from it, officials have said.

To this end, the state government has started orientation for the beneficiaries who are mostly youth for the second phase of the World Bank assisted public workfare (PWF) scheme.

Speaking during validation, enrolment and orientation programme for the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the scheme, which is under the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), in Ilorin, the head, PWF in the state, Mallam Shamsudeen Aregbe, said that the programme was meant to graduate beneficiaries from poverty level to self-sufficiency status.

Aregbe, who said that beneficiaries would receive monthly stipend of N7,500 each, added that about N1.6 billion would be expended on the programme by the state government in one year. He also said that the beneficiaries are expected to work in their communities four hours a day and five days in a week except weekend and public holidays and in such areas as environmental sanitation, desalting of drainages, road rehabilitation, cleaning of public places among others. The PWF coordinator, who said that the scheme had commenced on July 1, 2019 and would end June 30, 2020, advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity to alleviate poverty among vulnerable youth.