No fewer than 4,000 people in Borno were engaged in community-based development activities under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P in 2013.
The SURE-P Coordinator in the state, Malam Wakil Kalanga, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN in Maiduguri on Tuesday.
Kalanga said that the participants were being empowered under the Community Services, Women and Youths Employment, CSWYE project of the SURE-P.
He said that the beneficiaries drawn from the 27 local government, included youths, women and vulnerable groups selected by the community leaders in their various localities.
He said that the beneficiaries were being exposed to community-based services like environmental sanitation and beautification; facilities maintenance; community security, and many other socio-economic services needs of the communities.
The coordinator said that this was meant to improve the living standard of the people.
“Other services provided by the beneficiaries, include teaching in primary and secondary schools. Some of the beneficiaries are exposed to carpentry, painting, plumbing and inter-locks making. Some of them were also engaged in planting of trees, maintenance of green parks and planting of trees,’’ the coordinator said.
Kalanga said that N10,000 was paid to each of the beneficiaries as monthly stipend for a five-hour work per day, adding that it was paid into the individual’s bank accounts.
He said that the gesture was meant to also motivate the beneficiaries to build trust in government policies, programmes and projects.
NAN reports that the SURE-P is designed to provide temporary employment opportunities in community services for up to 185,000 unemployed and unskilled Nigerian youths and women from all states of the federation. NAN