FG Distributes Engagement Letters to NSIP Independent Monitors in Katsina

By Francis Sardauna

The federal government has distributed engagement letters and tablets to 108 trained National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) Independent Monitors in Katsina State to ensure effective implementation of the programme in the state.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs Sadiya Umar Farouk, while distributing the letters and working tools to the beneficiaries, said the independent monitors would effectively monitor the NSIP activities in their respective local governments.

Farouk, represented by the ministry’s Assistant Director Information and Communications Technology, Dr. Aminu Tukur Ingawa, said NSIP was created by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 with the mandate of lifting citizens out of poverty.

She explained that the federal government flagged off the training of 5,000 independent monitors nationwide for the NSIP programme, out of which 4,452 were trained across the country, while 108 were trained in Katsina State.

She said: “Today (Thursday), we distributed engagement letters and devices for the trained independent monitors. These devices are equipped with an application that we will use for report and monitoring activities of the trained monitors. The application which is called Social Investment Monitoring System is a mobile application designed for monitoring NSIP.”

She affirmed that the beneficiaries would be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000, stressing that they are not allowed to assign their responsibilities to the third party as they would be held accountable by the ministry for the task given to them.

The minister, therefore warned them against engaging themselves in any shoddy deals, adding that anyone caught sabotaging government’s efforts and goals of the programme would face the wrath of the law.