Why past social security schemes failed ―Kogi coordinator

The Kogi state coordinator of the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), Mr Noah Alilu, has said the federal and state government’s social security schemes for the youths and the vulnerable in the country could only be successful with accurate and reliable data.

He said such social protection intervention for the unemployed youth, core poor and vulnerable people failed in the past because of absence of reliable data.

He therefore lauded the efforts of the World Bank for making such information available to government, policy makers and those responsible for programmes implementation.

This is realizable through the Instrumentality of Community Based Targeting (CBT) model that culminates in the production of Single Register (SR) of the unemployed, core poor and vulnerable members of society for effective targeting.

Alilu, who made this known while speaking during a 4-Day steps down Training for Community Based Targeting Teams in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state, said YESSO was designed to ensure that data base of community dwellers were scientifically generated.

He said the Community based targeting CBT was used by Kogi YESSO to develop the single Register (SR) of 12 local government areas across the three senatorial district of the state.

“Analytically, 360 communities were captured in the first and second round CBT SR exercise in Kogi State, with 12 529 Households enumerated across board. These communities and households cut across Adavi, Ajaokuta, Dekina, Ibaji Ofu, Olamaboro, Okene, Okehi, Ijumu, Lokoja and Yagba-West”, he said.

While urging the CBT teams and enumerators to see their selection into the program as an opportunity to contribute towards the uplifting the downtrodden, he appealed to them to resist compromise and conduct themselves according to the guidelines of CBT process.

The commissioner for budget and planning, Paul Maiwada, said the government of Ahlaji Yahaya Bello, attached high premium to the issues of youth employment and poverty reduction in the state.

He assured them that the state government was committed to harvesting all the components of YESSO, which include public workfare and skills for Job and the five components of Social Investment unit of the Federal Government, all geared towards providing succour for the downtrodden in our society to ensuring a healthy cohabitation