Promoters of social protection program for Adamawa State have commenced moves to determine funding sources for the program.
An inception meeting in this direction was held during the week in Yola where the financial consultant for the exercise outlined the activities that will give rise to the anticipated fiscal map for the implementation of the program.
This phase of stakeholders seeking to chart the funding path is coming close to when Adamawa State is expected to have a Social Protection (SP) law in place to give legal backing and enduring bite to SP projects around the state.
Social Protection is described as public or private measures that protect people from poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion through provision of such interventions as cash transfers and healthcare assistance that encourage minimum level of well-being.
While the state government, with specific reference to the administration of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, has long been implementing social protection programs, including the Fintiri Business Wallet under which state-owned Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation Agency (PAWECA) frequently advances capital, typically N50,000 to small business owners, such projects usually just pass as random interventions.
To improve on such noncommittal interventions, the government in 2024 established a Social Protection Policy. And to further strengthen the policy itself and firm up social protection in the state, non-government organisations, most notably the German Corporation for International Development (GIZ), came into the picture.
GIZ, working closely with the state government, with the European Union and the German Government providing funding, currently has before the state House of Assembly a bill, the Adamawa State Social Protection Draft Bill, to legislate social protection for Adamawa State.
The entire process runs under GIZ-implemented Supporting Sustainable Social Protection, Participation and Economic Resilience in North-east Nigeria Programme (SEPIN-SUSI).
Knowing fully well that social protection policy and accompanying law will amount to nothing without dependable funding, the stakeholders arrived at the decision to include a financial consultancy, which crystalized into the inception meeting earlier in the week after some other initial activities.
Representatives of relevant government ministries, departments and agencies as well as people from civil society organisations (CSOs) who constitute the Social Protection Transition Working Group (TWG) met in Yola Tuesday November 4, for the one-day inception meeting on SP fiscal space analysis (FSA).
Explaining the rationale for the consultancy and the inception meeting, the Adamawa State Social Protection Focal Person and the SP component of GIZ projects in the state, Titus Takodoba said the essence of the consultancy is to identify potential funding sources and develop a sustainable financing strategy for Social Protection in Adamawa State.
He said the inception meeting was meant to introduce the consultancy to the various stakeholders.
The Lead Consultant of the SP funding trajectory, Mr Japhet Dzunve, made two presentations, both essentially explaining that the consultancy is a four-month process designed to take a close look at the financial potentials of Adamawa State: what revenue sources there are, how revenues have been used in the past couple of budget years, and what room there is to find social protection.
He told the stakeholders that the meeting was meant to highlight the phases the consultancy will wade through to come up with the financial space possibilities for funding social protection in the state.
Social Protection, he stressed, requires a sustainable financing plan to guarantee predictable and adequate funding.
He asserted that a Fiscal Space Analysis, such as he was contracted to do, “moves the conversation from ‘We can’t afford it’ to a strategic discussion about ‘How we can afford it'”.
The lead consultant outlined the four main phases of the fiscal space analysis consultancy, phase 1 of which is Inception and Data Scoping, involving kick off meetings and detailed review of the state Social Protection Policy and the Bill.
Phase 2 is Fiscal Space Analysis and Costing, featuring review of revenue, expenditure and debt profiles of the state and cost priority of SP interventions.
Phase 3 is for Strategy and Validation when a multi-year financial strategy will be drafted and a validation workshop organised for input of stakeholders; while Phase 4 is when the validated Sustainable Financial Strategy will be perfected and ready for presentation to the SP Council.
By Onimisi Alao
