Cross River Govt trains 221 for Social Intervention, Investment Program 

From Ene Asuquo, Calabar 

The Cross River State Government through the office of Social Intervention and Investment Program has started it capacity building for the program that will cut across all the 196 political wards in the State with the training of 221 facilitators made up of 196 ward development officers(WDO’s) and 25 local government liaison officers.

The State Coordinator of the Program, Edem Okokon Effiom made the disclosure while addressing journalists shortly after the training workshop in Calabar for the southern senatorial district 

Effiom said the training program would be in all the three Senatorial Districts, starting first from the southern, Central and the Northern senatorial districts of the state to build capacity in each of the Wards. 

According to him, “the training will seek to build the Ward Development Officers to efficiently help them in identifying the various social starters that are abound within the 196 council wards of the state”.

He stated that the capacity building will put the WDOs in a better position to administer the Governor’s “people first mantra”, especially as it pertains to creating a social safety net for the very vulnerable and the difficult to reach people within the state.

Meanwhile, 87 people were trained at the weekend in Calabar which comprises of 87 WDOs  and nine local government officers from the Southern Senatorial District

He said 150 cross riverians in each ward would benefit from the social intervention program, maintaining that 100 beneficiaries would be through direct cash transfer while 50 would be one off empowerment 

Effiom also stressed that beneficiaries are to be sourced amongst the population within the council wards irrespective of their political affiliation including the churches and the Muslim community.