Governor Babajie Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State says part of the strategy being deployed by his administration in the distribution of government palliatives is to reach out to vulnerable people in the state through their various religious organisations.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the civil society groups in the state will also be tasked to reach out to other people, the governor said.
Sanwo-Olu stated that under the programme over 500,000 households across the state will received various forms of palliatives including bags of rice, rice, Garri, and other food items.
The governor spoke during the flag-off of the distribution of the palliatives on Sunday, saying the food bank initiative will be conducted in two phases.
He said, “As a responsive government, we announced a number of measures aimed at ameliorating the effect of the policy on our people, most especially the vulnerable.
“These palliative measures which are already being implemented include a 50 percent reduction in transportation cost in the government-owned bus system and free health services for pregnant women in government hospitals among others.
“One of the measures which we announced and being formally flagged off today is the distribution of food items for vulnerable households through the Lagos food bank programme.
“The strategic goal of this programme is to reach 500,000 vulnerable households in the state with staple food items using two methodologies – bulk and individual.
“Bulk food items include (50kg rice, 50kg garri and 100kg beans) for groups, and food boxes (10kg rice, 5kg garri, and 5kg beans) for individual vulnerable households.
“Overall, this initiative will directly impact 500,000 benefitting households, over 2,500 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises involved in bag manufacturing, food aggregation, packaging, and logistics, while over 25,000 employees of the MSMEs will be indirectly impacted.
“I will like to use this opportunity to solicit for the support of well-meaning and public-spirited individuals and organisations for this programme so that more of our people in need of this intervention can be reached.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently announced the distribution of N5 billion to each of the 36 states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as part of his administration strategies to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Out of the sum, N2 billion has already been released to each of the sub-nationals.
