Chinenye Nwaogu: The Things He Will Never Say Out

Chinenye Nwaogu: The Things He Will Never Say Out
The successful implementation of Social Investment Programmes (SIP) in Abia State can only be attributed to the leadership capacity and administrative sagacity of Hon. Chinenye Nwaogu, State Focal Person, SIP Abia State. His outstanding performance in administering every aspect of Social Investment Programme has placed him above his counterparts from other States. Suffice to say that he has used his dexterity by leveraging on these programmes to give the economy of the State a facelift; for instance using N-Power Programme to engage in the promotion of made in Aba products, embarking on a rural driven GEEP Empowerment Programme (Market Moni and Tradermoni) etc. Success, especially in leadership doesn’t come by chance rather through hard work, determination, doggedness, and commitment and these attributes he exhibited has culminated to massive impacts and evident achievements by him; to the amazement of his critics. This level of commitment and achievements have endeared him to the heart of an achiever, the governor of Abia State, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, Ph.D and also brought him a deserved recognition by the president Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, SAN whom the SIP office is directly under his watch; all these to the disappointment of his antagonists.
Notwithstanding his impacts and achievements through SIP, he has remained calm and focused and this has been the most surprising aspect of his personality. Although, it is solely because of his believe in performance rather than noise making. However, it is for your interest and benefit that I decided to give an overview of the impacts and achievements Abia SIP office had made in the course of the closing year, 2018 under the steering leadership of Hon. Chinenye Nwaogu. This is done with the aim to keep you informed, motivate and encourage you to take advantage of these programmes and its accessible office in Abia State come 2019. Hence, the summary of the SIP activities on programme by programme basis are as follows:
N-Power
This aspect of SIP has performed creditably in Abia State. This is based on the fact that we have a Focal Person with foresight. It will interest you to know that in the first Batch of N-Power, selected volunteers deployed to Abia were only 4,500 as against the higher figures of most States. The State Focal Person, Hon. Chinenye Nwaogu was dismayed by this figures and therefore swiftly went forward to underscore the factors behind the low figures, he deciphered that Abia State started failing at the point of registration and this was due to low registrants and incorrect registration details. This necessitated his directive that we embark on massive sensitization of prospective applicants in order to have informed applicants in preparation for the registration of the second batch of the N-Power programme. Also, during the registration period he mobilized personnel to rural areas to register people and all these efforts paid off as 7,500 volunteers were successfully selected and deployed in Abia for the second Batch of the programme. Therefore, Abia State currently have 12,000 N-Power beneficiaries who receives a monthly stipends of #30,000 and this injects #360 million naira monthly into Abia State local economy. Hence, there is no need emphasizing on the multiplier effects of these numbers on Abia local economy. However, it is imperative to state that beyond skills acquisition and the monthly stipends to volunteers, N-Power programme have stimulated economic growth and development in the State. For instance, it is a known fact and no longer news that N-Power Programme have generated a total income of over 60 million naira in the pockets of Aba tailors, materials producers and artisans only in 2018.
N-Power Build
The N-Power build is a vocational training and apprenticeship scheme designed to train beneficiaries on different skills based on their area of interest. It is interesting to note that prior to the design of the N-Build scheme, the visionary governor of Abia State Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, Ph.D had earlier designed and developed a similar scheme known as Education for Employment (E4E) and built an ultra-modern training facility at Umuobiakwa, Abia State for the vocational training. The training facility enabled Abia State to seamlessly fit into the federal government scheme and this gave her advantage over other Southeastern States as it was adopted as the major training center in the whole of Southeast. This culminated to the launching of the N-Build scheme by the Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, SAN in company of other federal government functionaries and a host of other high profiled dignitaries at the training center in Umuobiakwa, Abia State as a recognition of Abia State government’s efforts in skill acquisition and vocational training. Presently Abia has over 1,600 volunteers who receives a monthly stipends of #10,000 which has injected over 192 million into the State economy in the current year.
Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP)
GEEP is the federal government loan scheme consisting of #50,000 Market moni and #10,000 Tradermoni facilitated by Bank of Industry (BOI) for petty traders. In furtherance of Hon. Chinenye Nwaogu’s efforts to stimulate economic growth and development at every nook and cranny of the State in order to improve the local economy vis a vis improvement in the means of livelihood, he responded promptly and brought the programme to the State. In view of his desire to meet the target populace which can be found mostly in the rural areas, he mobilized enumerators in their numbers to move into the rural communities to register prospective beneficiaries. The GEEP scheme has injected over #30 Billion into Abia local economy and more is anticipated as funding continues through the ongoing Tradermoni Scheme.
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
CCT is a welfare programme of the federal government with the aim to reduce poverty by paying a token of #5,000 to #10,000 to identified indigent person (s) in our communities. Although, the programme is at its implementation stage in Abia, it is worthy to note that Abia is among the few States in Nigeria to have started its implementation after all the necessary logistics have been provided by the State government and satisfied by the federal government. This goes along way to underline the fact that Abia State is at the forefront of all the Social Investment Programmes and it shows that the man saddled with the responsibility of piloting the affairs of SIP Office in Abia State has the required leadership and administrative prowess to facilitate all necessary procedures in due time.
School Feeding Programme
Its not news that the Wife of the Governor of Abia State in conjunction with some supporters began provision of free school lunch in the state. The programme was still in its early stage when Hon Nwaogu was appointed State Focal Person being that it’s also one of the programmes under the SIP scheme, Hon Nwaogu collaborating with office of the Wife of the Governor has successfully ran the most efficient school feeding programme east of the Niger. Today over 5300 cooks receiving over 347 million monthly, supporting the states agriceconomy is one area he has show quality delivery.
Just recently in a dinner for FPs and the Vice President, Hon Nwaogu was asked to speak for other FPs as a mark of recognition of his outstanding performance as focal person on Social Investment. Working under him these few years, I have observed why Governor Ikpeazu has confidence in his ability to deliver project. Many wonder why he’s almost part of every successful project of this action Governor.
In 2019 and beyond Hon Nwaogu is more energized to ensure that Abians benefit from every programme available.
Chinedum Anozie
Umuahia, Abia State