By Kenneth Obieh
The World Bank in conjunction with Federal CARES Support Unit have scored Delta State high in the implementation of the NG-CARES program in the state among other states in the country.
The result was given by the Task Team Leader, Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa during the debriefing meeting with
the State CARES Steering Committee Members to conclude the three days implementation support mission to the state.
Okunmadewa stated: “From the results so far, Delta state had performed excellently well, so we think we can actually begin to showcase this. We are confident as a team to showcase what Delta has to other states and ask them to emulate Delta state.
“This is an attempt to help the state prepare for the assessment of the Independent Verification Agents (IVAs) which is coming in the month of October.
“What we looked at is what the state is expected to deliver and the details as against what the state had currently, and again I think the state stands a very good chance of making a very high grade during the assessment.
“For somebody like me, the disbursement is not actually the issue, but the impact. What is the number of poor and vulnerable been reached in the state and the lives and livelihoods been restored. On that, Delta state has done excellently well.
He also mentioned that the essence of the mission visit was to gauge the level and status of the implementation and they are strategic in looking for where there are good promises of results that could be used as beacons for other states.
The TTL further disclosed that this has given them opportunity to interact differently with the team doing the work and team supervising and Steering the work done due to his great expectations he had about Delta state from the desk report coming saying” I must say, we are not disappointed at all in Delta state.’
The Commissioner for Economic Planning and the Chairman of the State CARES Steering Committee, (SCSC) Dr. Barry Gbe thanked the world bank team for the satisfactory report card given to the for the work they have done so far saying that they will look at the gray areas and complete them before the IVAs will come in the month of October.
He assured the team that the positive report will be submitted to the governor soonest for prompt actions to be taken to consolidate on the impact already achieved in the lives and livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable in the state.