The Federal Government has raised the alarm that its social investment programmes are being sabotaged by Nigerians.
National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP), Dr. Umar Buba Bindir, disclosed this, yesterday, at the opening of a result-based monitoring and evaluation training for staff of the scheme in Abuja.
The National Coordinator stated that “some people, who are to oversee the conditional cash transfer, are exploiting the ignorance of the beneficiaries and sharing the money with them.”
He went on: “Under the school feeding programme, we have received reports of some women, who are engaged to cook for the children, who give them less than what they are supposed to give and sometimes, poor quality food.
He noted that the unsavoury developments prompted the government to prioritise monitoring and evaluation of the entire scheme for better effect.
The week-long training for participants, drawn from 17 states, including Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo and Jigawa, which make up Batch A of the programme, is to retool Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) practitioners and managers in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for efficient service delivery.
He continued: “Much of what you are going to experience at this training will be the unique new ways of doing things that seek to improve the lives of our people.
“You will agree with me that the fiscal pressures and ever-rising expectations from ordinary citizens provide a continuing impetus for governments to provide more services and with higher standards of quality.
The national coordinator further said: “The importance of Monitoring & Evaluation in current development and humanitarian programmes cannot be over-emphasised. M&E implementation in programmes/policies helps in improving performance and achieving results. Currently, there is a huge shift to Result-Based Management (RBM), which requires that organisations manage projects and programmes for the outcome.
