Ondo records 161,000 poor households

By Olusola Oke

The Ondo state government said it has captured 161,000 individuals from Poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs) on its Social Register in the past two years.

Mr Olaoluwa Bankole, the Coordinator of the Ondo State Operation Coordinating Unit (SOCU), made this known on Tuesday, in Akure.

He stated this at a two-day re-refresher training for Community-based targeting team members and enumerators organised by the National Social-Net Coordinating Office( NASSCO) in collaboration with SOCU.

Bankole explained that the programme, the first of its kind in the state, begun about two years ago, had captured no fewer than 48,500 heads of households in the state.

He stated that the state was aiming to expand the scope of the programme to ensure a single register for all vulnerable households across the state’s 18 local council areas.

According to him, the captured and harmonised data would be forwarded to the NASSCO in Abuja for its social programmes for the state.

He added that it would also promote inclusiveness in the delivery of social protection interventions in the state.

The SOCU coordinator noted that the initiative had been mandated to reduce the number of vulnerable people in the society.

He disclosed that 10 participants were chosen and trained from each local government area in the state, to capture more people to the register, saying that all people of good should key into the programme and ameliorate the sufferings of the vulnerable in the state, as government could not do it alone.

“This idea is not only used by the government alone. People can come to our office and ask for the register in helping their community and make our society better”, he said.

Mrs Olubunmi Ademosun, the Special Adviser (SA) on Public and Intergovernmental Relations to the state Governor, said that the register was about reaching out to the poor and the vulnerable in the society.

Ademosun said that the government was trying to get closer to the people and make them enjoy the dividends of democracy, noting that the programme had been a huge success for the past two years.

She added that extremely comfortable people and non-governmental organisations could easily be of help to the vulnerable through the register and the gesture would bring everybody together and ensure that their problems were known and addressed.

Mr Gbenga Olaniyi, the Chairman of the Akure South Local Council Area, said that the programme was unprecedented in the history of the state.

Represented by his deputy, Mr Oluwarotimi Akintogun, Olaniyi stressed the need for the people to cooperate with the programme as it would be beneficial to them.

Two of the participants, Mr Idowu Ariyo and Mrs Bunmi Akinola, said that the training would refresh them and help them to achieve greatly on the field.