World Bank Social Protection Specialist Rates Gombe High On NG-CARES Implementation – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

By Pune Media On Sep 4, 2025

William Attah

Dr Fanen Ade, a Social Protection Specialist with the World Bank, has rated Gombe State high in the implementation of its programme which aims at lifting poor vulnerable people out of poverty.

Dr Fanen made the commendation in an interview on the sidelines of a Northeast zonal stakeholders consultative meeting on the review of Independent Verification Agent (IVA) performance under NG-CARES programme.

The NG-CARES programme phase 1.0 which ends by the end of this year (2025), commenced shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to the economic hardship faced by the people, particularly the vulnerable poor of the society.

With high hopes of commencing phase 2.0 by next year (2026), the clamour for Gombe State to key into the programme again is rising following its success in phase 1.0

According to Dr Ade, positively touching the lives of about 650,000 people is not a small achievement, stressing that, Gombe is one of the highest performing States as over N40 billion had been expended on the people to help them buy food, send children to school, pay medical bills, improve farming viability, community infrastructures, such as building schools, hospitals and many others.

He assured that the next phase will focus on building institutions and systems, that is, creating systems that will target the poor.

Chairman, Federal Care Technical Committee with NG-CARES, Malam Auwal Mohammed who is also a Director in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, explained that the essence of the meeting was to review the performance of the implementation of the Independent Verification Agent (IVA).

He explained further that “we have what we call P and R, that is, Performance and Results. It is what you put that you are reimbursed with. We urge the Governors to invest in NG-CARES because it is a very good programme that will really lift a lot of people out of poverty, especially the down trodden.

“If you look at the rate of poverty in the northeast, it is really high, so if we enhance this NG-CARES programme, I’m sure it will alleviate a lot of people out of poverty”, he pointed out.

Malam Haruna Imam, Gombe State coordinator of the programme, said the project has impacted 648,000 lives since 2022 in Gombe State in many livelihood sectors.

He commended the Inuwa Yahaya led Government for keying into the programme by successfully executing it in the State. “He has been taking the programme very seriously”, Malam Imam noted.

Among the stakeholders that participated in the meeting, were beneficiaries who expressed joy over the impact of the programme in uplifting their livelihood, calling on Government for more intervention to the people through such programmes.