By Francis Ogwo
The sum of N100m World Bank grant has been received by Kwara State Government as part of efforts to help in the management of COVID-19 in the state.
This was contained in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, on Saturday.
Ajakaye stated that the fund came through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with the state meeting the criteria.
This made the state one of the first few states to receive the fund after it was certified fit for the financial support on account of its COVID-19 efforts.
Ajakaye in the statement further disclosed that disbursement of the fund is part of the ongoing World Bank-assisted Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement (REDISSE) project, which is coordinated by the NCDC to help in strengthening the funding of the implementation of the COVID-19 response and incidence action plan.
“The COVID-19 Response Fund for the states will cover the priority activities in areas such as trainings, workshops, meetings, seminar, procurement of goods & services, operating costs, consultancy services/non-consultancy.
“Kwara State is one of the few states that have met the criteria laid down by NCDC and World Bank, hence this has triggered the disbursement of N100 million to the state,” it added.
Very recently, you may recall that the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and the National Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the World Bank N3.7bn COVID-19 response support to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
