The Orientation and Enrollment of Labour-intensive Public Workfare (LIPW) beneficiaries across the 21 LGAs in the State under the Anambra State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (AN-CARES) Programme has commenced in Anambra state.
The programme implemented by Anambra State Community and Social Development Agency, ANCSDA, is to provide temporary employment opportunities to vulnerable populations through the development and maintenance of local infrastructure that do not require special skills.
Beneficiaries of the LIPW initiative, totaling 1,755, who must be between 18 to 45 years, will receive 12,500 naira stipend each every month for two years for performing identified public works.
Speaking at the launch of the orientation and enrolment programme, the Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development Partners, Mrs. Chiamaka Nnake, said the LIPW is very well in line with the Transformation Agenda of Mr. Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo.
The Commissioner who was represented at the event by the Planning Manager, AN-CARES Coordination Unit, Mr. Christopher Obidike, said the Chukwuma Soludo administration has set aside over sixty-five million naira as initial grants to be transferred to deserving youths and women under LIPW.
“It is part of “Soludo Solution”, a Solution that is fundamentally focused on creating a prosperous future for the youths, empowering them to function and be productive.
“The targets of LIPW in the State are unemployed and unskilled youths and women with education qualification of SSCE or below who have lost Labour-income owing to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic,” she noted.
Nnake also said the LIPW is also targeted to provide alternatives to unskilled youths who may have been affected by the state government’s reforms in the use of parks and markets in the state.
“The LIPW is an immediate means of deploying the youths into more useful and decent livelihoods.
“I am happy to note that the implementation procedure involves mandatory life-skills training for the beneficiaries.
“The beneficiaries are encouraged to take this training seriously and endeavour to save some of their stipends as these savings will form the seed money that will enable them venture into various livelihoods proper to the trainings they have received,” she said.
The general manager, ANCSDA, Mr. Chudi Mojekwu, while addressing beneficiaries from Njikoka and Idemmili North Council Areas, said the beneficiaries, who are all unemployed, were picked from the State Social Register, SSR, profiled four years ago.
Mr. Mojekwu said the beneficiaries are mandated to diligently perform their assigned work for at least four hours daily and five days in a week, mark the daily work attendance register, attend and actively participate in life-skill trainings on designated days, take good care of work tools and materials among others.
“The LIPW beneficiaries must be between ages 18 and 45 and with education qualification of SSCE or below,” Mojekwu emphasized.
Some of the beneficiaries Mrs. Ebere Ojialor and Mrs. Ebere Ojialor, whose joy knew no bounds, thanked Governor Soludo for availing them the opportunity, which according to her, they have been yearning for and charged her co- beneficiaries to make best use of the opportunity to become self-reliant.
