Senior Special Adviser on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Kwara State Governor, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, has said the state will do its possible best to mitigate the hardship the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) imposed on residents.

Ibrahim said the state would concentrate its resources on rural women and youths across the state, until a larger percentage of them had benefited from multifarious relief packages from the state government. She spoke, yesterday, in Ilorin, during a programme by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the state government.

The event, among others, was observed to launch Post-COVID-19 Socio-Economic Revitalisation Support Programme to make unconditional cash transfer to vulnerable residents of the state.

Her words: “This launching of economic revitalisation programme for vulnerable communities affected by COVID-19 in Kwara state by UNDP seeks to complement existing developmental initiatives in Kwara that ensure social security.

“We must commend our governor for relentless efforts to improve human capital and create an enabling environment for the SDGs to thrive in Kwara.”

She added that the scheme would also help in the achievement of SDGs Target 2.3 (Zero Hunger), which aims to double agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers by 2030.

Appreciating the UNDP and Federal Government for the initiative, she said that evidence abound to prove that the cash transfer programme for vulnerable people could end extreme poverty.

“Cash transfer to vulnerable people has proven to be a workable solution to extreme poverty. There are documented evidences of how putting money directly in the hands of the needy has helped to refocus the global efforts to empower people. It gives people the power to dictate the direction of their own future.

“In Kwara, we have long domesticated the cash transfer policy of President Muhammadu Buhari. It works for us as it has worked for the Federal Government. Through our Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) and some other interventions, we have reduced the poverty rate from 30.2 per cent to 20.4 per cent. We have also helped young people to grow their businesses,” she said.

The state government commended UNDP for its roles in making the world a better place.