Daily Trust (Abuja)
Theophilus Abbah
16 November 2008
(Page 3 of 4)
On the level of completion of the projects, the team said, "Projects under this programme have recorded low completion rates across the nation. As at June 2007, majority of the PHCs were still ongoing or not started at all, and only about 26 centres had been completed nationwide (out of 111). PHCs renovation on the other hand had not commenced in most (73%) of the sites. Only about 24 centres (14%) had been completely renovated and the rest were still ongoing.
The M&E is not satisfied with the supply of drugs, saying, "This component proves to be more problematic. First, the award did not go through due process, i.e the contracts were not advertised. Secondly, the contracts for the supply were awarded (and the suppliers mobilised) at almost the same time as that for construction/renovation. As a result drugs have been supplied to PHCs that have not been constructed and renovated. These drugs have a limited shelf life. Many are expired, about to expire, or will expire before they are put to use.
The team also said the renovation component of the scheme was problematic. According to the team, "Contracts were awarded and contractors mobilised, but there were no designs, drawings or bills of quantities. In many instances, even sites had not been decided. A detailed costing of the individual projects was supposed to have preceded the determination of the contract sum for each site. Obviously, this had not been done. For instance, as at July 2007, only one site has been handed over to contractors in the South-East. Secondly, the choice of locations was a major problem. Many locations had not been chosen at the time of ward of renovation contracts. Some of the chosen location was not in need of renovation as they had only recently been renovated - either by the LGA or in some cases by philanthropists..."
POVERTY ALLEVIATION:
Target: Halve between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day... Halve between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger...
Conservative estimate has it that the population of Nigerians living below poverty line is not less than 65%. With about 70% of the 140 million Nigerians living in rural areas, where the basic source of income is from farming with the use of local farming tools, the challenge of the eradication of poverty is real. The agency vested with the task of fighting poverty in the country is the National Agency for Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), which is coordinated by Dr. Magnus Kpakol, a Senior Special Assistant to the President. Information available to this reporter has it that not less than N10 billion has been channelled into various schemes proposed for execution geared towards poverty eradication. They include the following:
Keke NAPEP:
Under this scheme, tricycles purchased by government from an Indian automobile company, are given out to Nigerians through a soft loan scheme repayable over a period of time through microfinance banks. Going by the projection and funds released, NAPEP is supposed to have taken delivery of 5,000 units of Keke NAPEP and distributed to all states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja by December 2008. As at the time of filing this report, only 500 units of this tricycle has been supplied, with 4,500 still being awaited from the contractors, just two months to the deadline for the distribution of the vehicles.
In an interview with Sunday Trust Dr. Kpakol blamed the delay in the supply of the tricycles on government's decision to cancel waivers for the import of such vehicles, and the fact that the supplier complained of the lack of storage facilities for them. However, the NAPEP boss insisted that the supplier would deliver the goods by the end of 2008, or the agency would be compelled to seek refund, if they are not supplied three months after the expiration of the deadline for the supplies. There is a bond in the contract agreement with a bank that makes it possible for NAPEP to seek a refund in case the supplier defaults in the supply of the outstanding 4,500 vehicles.
This is a source of controversy at the agency, as tongues have begun to wag over the cost of the vehicle and the terms of the contract. For instance, Sunday Trust gathered that when the scheme started, the unit cost of the tricycle was N180,000, but an operator, Sani Lawal, said because of the scarcity of the vehicle, the price has been raised to the point that they can no longer afford them. For one, the current unit cost is put at about N430,000, but because of measures by microfinance banks that provide guarantee for the loans, any persons subscribing to it would pay as much as N700,000 before he can become the owner of just one. In order to meet up with the repayment schedule for this huge sum of money, operators have to make monthly payment of N40,000 through the microfinance banks, a sum that is considered too high, going by the meagre sum money the operators earn daily from the transportation scheme. Apart from this difficulty, some of the operators complained of the lack of spare parts for the vehicle. An operator, Aliyu Obaje argued thus, "If government is really serious about alleviating poverty, it should not only provide the Keke, it should also make available the spare parts. How do we maintain the Keke when there are no spare parts to replace the worn out parts?"
Conditional Cash Transfer:
Under this scheme, cash is expected to be transferred to 6,250 households in 12 pilot states of the federation, including the federal capital, Abuja. Recipients must been seen to be 'vulnerable households'. A total sum of N1.6 billion has been set aside for the cash transfer in 2008. As it were, the cash transfer scheme has put NAPEP on the pages of newspapers on a daily basis, as the funds are distributed through different means. In Sokoto State alone, N14 million was given to 28 mosques and churches for distribution to 500 poor people in the congregations to enable them become self-reliant. In the same state, it is earmarked that 13 poorest households identified in 23 local government councils would be placed on a monthly stipend of N1,500 each (about $10), if the number of children is not more than three. But if they are more than this figure, then each of the 13 identified poor families would be given N1,000.00 each every month. This scheme has come under serious criticisms as there are accusations that these funds are always channelled through traditional rulers who put the names of their family members on the list of recipients. Sunday Trust could not confirm if this accusation is true, but in a country in which over 80 million persons are believed to be living below the poverty line, selecting 13 households for support may not make any impact.
Village Economic Development Solutions:
The government is putting as much as N5.6 billion into this scheme in which micro credit is provided to cooperative societies in all states of the federation. This huge sum is supposed to have been fully disbursed by December 2008. When asked to provide the modalities for the selection of the cooperative societies, officials at NAPEP declined, saying that it was part of the office's secrets. However, it was gathered from sources in the office that, under the scheme, the various state governments are required to provide counterpart funds. But this is not being done. Unconfirmed reports said in spite of the fact that they do not provide the counterpart funds, some state government officials still access their share of the micro credit facility through banks. In many states, the list of cooperative societies is obtained from the office of the Deputy Governor, and it is difficult to verify the existence of the groups, as they have been set up on emergency purposely to access the NAPEP loans. However, Dr. Kpakol insisted that he ensures that cooperative societies meet certain criteria before loans are approved for them. The test-case for this scheme would be when the loans are due for repayment.
In an interview, the coordinator of NAPEP in Jigawa State, Alhaji Usman Alto Roni, complained that the manner in which poverty alleviation programmes were being run left many questions unanswered. He alleged that most of the funds being released by government to fight poverty were being diverted into personal accounts of the heads of such departments.
He said, "Most of the funds the federal government is releasing for poverty alleviation are being diverted into personal pockets of the heads of such agencies. If there are equipments, they end up in their farms or factories."
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