14,000 elderly citizens get N20,000 monthly stipend in Ekiti

Our Reporter

Fourteen thousand elderly persons in Ekiti State have been paid N20,000 each under the Social Security Scheme re-introduced by Governor Kayode Fayemi.

This was made known yesterday at Ode-Ekiti by the Director-General of the Bureau for Employment, Labour and Productivity, Mr. Lanre Ogunjobi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative is popularly known as ‘Owo Arugbo” (stipend for the elderly).

Ogunjobi, who spoke during the official presentation of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) credit cards to the beneficiaries, explained that the disbursement was for the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2019.

He recalled that Governor Fayemi, during his first tenure, had introduced the payment of stipends to vulnerable elderly persons in the state from age 65 and above.

The Director-General, however, expressed regrets that the programme was abandoned for four years by the Ayodele Fayose administration.

He stressed that the programme was devoid of political colouration as being misconstrued, saying beneficiaries were identified from the Single Register of Poor and Vulnerable Households that was created from a survey of communities across the 16 local governments using internationally-accepted standards of poverty indices.

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Ogunjobi added that the programme was a reflection of the commitment of the government to the welfare of all levels of people in the state, particularly the elderly, women and children, who constituted the most vulnerable in the society.

He advised the beneficiaries to spend the money judiciously, emphasising the importance of taking proper care of their ATM cards and disallowing people they do not trust from handling them.

The Permanent Secretary in the Bureau of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Ayodele Ajimati, described the scheme as a “systemic cure for poverty” and advised other states to emulate the programme.

Ajimati said the success of the programme in the state was an indication that the scheme was capable of improving the lives of vulnerable people across the country if properly emulated.