The Akwa Ibom State Government is to provide free food to two million three
hundred thousand poorest of the poor of its citizens, or approximately 600,000
households across the three senatorial districts of the state. To achieve this, the
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Offiong Offor
disclosed that the administration of Governor Umo Eno was embarking on massive
food production through investments in agriculture.
Speaking during a media interaction tagged ARISE Scorecard with the theme,
“Food Sufficiency and Security”, Offor listed strategies adopted by the government
to feed the people. With her at the briefing was the commissioner of Information
and Strategy, Mr. Ini Ememobong, the Commissioner of Economic Development,
Emem Bob and the Akwa Ibom Bulk Purchase Agency Chairman, Mr. Dan Akpan.
She disclosed that seven local government areas in the state have provided lands to
support food production.
The Commissioner for Information said, “Government is funding agricultural
cooperative societies, providing lands, fertilizers, improved seedlings, cassava
stems, loans and grants and constructing rural roads all in a bid to increase food
production.” That, according to him, was not a problem for the new administration
to undertake because it perfectly fits into its development plans. He said, “Food
sustainability remains the priority of Governor Umo Eno’s administration. The first
thing is that the Ministry of Agriculture merged with the Ministry of Rural
Development which also has a component of cooperatives. He was deliberate in
doing this because the cooperatives system is the system driving food productivity
anywhere in the world.”
He is confident that the government will get this done with ease. This, as he said, is
because “The state government has a database of farmers and is working with
farmers associations such as the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Rice Farmers
Association, and Aquaculture Associations in the 31 local government areas of the
state.” Now, away from the farms, the government is also collaborating with other
stakeholders, as he said, “The government is also working with market unions to
supply staple foods at subsidized prices. It has provided cold rooms, fishing nets
and boats to artisanal fishermen.”
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Economic Development, Mr. Emem Bob said
that the government was targeting about 600,000 households captured in its Social
Register for its various intervention programmes aimed at ameliorating economic
hardship in the state. Bob said though the state Social Register has increased to
2.3m people, the government is reaching out to the vulnerable poor through 600
households captured in the social register.
He said, “The social register is well-structured. It’s structured in such a way that
we have broken the villages, wards and local governments that make up the state
social register. The total number of people in the social register is 2.3 million
individuals. When you talk about households we have about 600 households in the
social register and that is what we have been using for various interventions in the
state.”
He explained that the process for selection into the social register is clear and
transparent, adding that the social register had been up for the past 8 years until
Governor Umo Eno ordered that it be expanded to accommodate those who have
fallen under the poverty line.
He said “How people are selected for the social register is very clear, it is a very
transparent process in the sense that there is what we called Community-Based
Targeting. Don’t forget that anything that involves the World Bank is very
transparent. They are thorough.”
He explained that “Community-Based Targeting is what was used for social
register and we have State Organizing Coordinating Units which works with the
National Social Safety Nets Coordinator unit in Abuja; they work together and
have Staff across the local government. They go to villages, meet with village
heads to pick these people.”