Palliatives: 200,000 Households To Benefit In Oyo

By Babatunde Solanke

Oyo State Government has commenced the distribution of palliatives to poor households in the 33 local government areas of the state.

The development is  line with the measures put up by his administration under the Sustainable Actions for Economic Recovery (SAfER), to reduce the hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy in the Oyo State.

The State Governor, Seyi Makinde The governor, who kicked off the distribution of the food relief packages at the Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III Mini Stadium, Oyo State on Thursday, said 200,000 households would benefit from the food relief support.

Governor Makinde added that the government took its time to plan SAfER, which according to him is more than just a palliative.

In another related development in Oyo, the deputy governor of the state, Barrister Bayo Lawal; the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Olanike Adeyemo and the Chief of Staff to the governor, also kick-started the distribution of the food relief packages in Saki, Iseyin and Ogbomoso. respectively.

For the Ibadan Less City, the Deputy Speaker, Hon Abiodun Fadeyi, kicked off the distribution of the food packages, while the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, and his counterpart in the Trade, Industry, Investment and Cooperatives Ministry, Honourable Ademola Ojo, kicked off the scheme for Ibadan Main City and Ibarapa zone, respectively.

According to Governor Makinde, the food relief packages are meant for the poorest of the poor in order to mitigate the effect of the economic hardship on them, stating that each package contained a bag of 10kg rice, 5kg bag of beans, 5kg bag of yam flour and 1kg bottle of vegetable oil.

The governor added that the government is aware that all segments of the society have been affected by the subsidy removal, hence the design of different components of SAfER, which according to him, has taken into consideration other segments of the society.

Makinde noted that the state bought an additional 37,000 bags of rice to add to the 3,000 bags from the Federal Government to make a total of 40,000 bags of rice.

The governor equally stated that another component of SAfER, the distribution of farm inputs to about 10,000 farmers had been kick-started earlier, saying:
Other measures in the SAfER scheme include low-interest loans to artisans, and micro and small businesses, Enterprise Support to youths under the Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Project (YEAP), provision of transportation subsidy, free healthcare to 50,000 pensioners and 100,000 households for period of a year under the Oyo State Health Insurance scheme.