Troubled Zamfara has established three empowerment centres for the training of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in various skills.
“The empowerment centres have been handed over to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development,’’ the commissioner, Hajiya Fa’ika Ahmad, told newsmen in Gusau on Monday.
She said one centre was located in each of the three senatorial districts of the state in Gusau, Bukkuyum and Shinkafi local government areas.
“Very soon the centres will be upgraded and start operating.
“We are re-strategising the empowerment programme; we want it to be more sustainable instead of feeding the IDPs every day.
“After the training we shall employ the beneficiaries for a minimum period of one year after which we shall graduate them and support them with empowerment tools.
“We learned that IDPs have been selling tools given to them as support in the past instead of using them,’’ the commissioner said
“We believe after the one year employment, it will be difficult for them to sell the empowerment tools to be given to them this time,’’ she added.
The commissioner also told newsmen that a 2019 multidimensional poverty report scored Zamfara 91.8 per cent in national poverty rate making the state the poorest in the country.
“In 2019 when the Directorate of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management was established, we introduced various measures to address the challenges of poverty.
“We thank God that by 2020, according to the Living Standard Survey, Zamfara was scored 71.8 per cent in national poverty rate,’’ she said.
The directorate was upgraded to a full-fledged ministry in 2021.
“As a ministry with a mandate to coordinate all social programmes in the state, we have succeeded in coordinating various programmes that contributed to poverty reduction among vulnerable groups in the state,’’ Ahmad stressed.
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