The UK Department for International Development, DFID, says it has disbursed N5 billion to 56,000 pregnant women in Zamfara through its Child Development Grand Programme (CDGP).
Mr. Nura Muhammad, Advocacy Officer, Save the Children International, an agency of DFID, disclosed this in Gusau on Friday, at a meeting with members of the academia, media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), preparatory to Phase 2 of the programme.
The meeting was organised by the Save the Children International in collaboration with Zamfara Social Protection Platform (ZSPP).
Muhammadu said that the aid to the pregnant women was given between 2014 to 2019.
News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the CDGP project is implemented in Jigawa and Zamfara by the Save the Children and Action Against Hunger, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
It is aimed at supporting pregnant women with cash of N4,000 monthly each, to take care of their babies for a period of two years.
The main goal of the CDGP programme is to ensure effective child care, growth and development.
Muhammad, who is in charge of CDGP phase 2 in Zamfara, said that the programme was aimed at tackling the high level of malnutrition.
He added that the five-year programme, which was expected to close out in June 2019, was extended to July 2021 to build on the momentum and lessons learnt from the previous phase.
He said that the programme was aimed at tackling high level of malnutrition in Nigeria which had undermined the survival and development of children and fueled the inter-generational transfer of poverty.
According to him, the 56,000 beneficiaries are from all over the 500 communities from the two local government areas of Anka and Tsafe.
Earlier, Chairman, ZSPP, Nasiru Biyabiki, had said that the meeting was to review various programmes and to discuss with stakeholders on ways of ensuring the sustainability of the aid programme.
Biyabiki said that the programme had been engaging NGOs and other major stakeholders to ensure that the state government signed and implemented the Social Protection Policy for the benefit of vulnerable groups.
He commended the support and commitments given to the programme by the members of the Media, Academia and CSOs in the state.
He added that social protection was a collective responsibility and stressed the need for all stakeholders to meet from time to time to review issues affecting it.
NAN
