Central River Region (CRR) governor Abba Sanyang has urged family heads to exercise high sense of honesty and sincerity in presentation of data to officials of the National Nutrition Agency(NANA) and partners who are currently disbursing ten million dollars ($10m) among eighty-three thousand (83, 000) households across five regions of the country.
The cash payment named ‘Nafa Quick’ will avail D3000 to each household in these regions of the country as support to effect of the impact of Covid-19 in the country.
The government of The Gambia earlier announced that the Nafa Quick Cash payment is meant to minimize the difficulties endured by poor and vulnerable people living mainly in Upper River Region, Central River Region, Lower River Region, Foni in West Coast Region and Sabach Sanjal District in North Bank Region especially during this emergency period of the season.
The implementing bodies for this cash disbursement are the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and Department of Community Development who have already made payment of the first phase of the cash disbursement with the view of embarking on similar payment with the same amount by next month.
“In The Gambia I think there is this need for honesty to be done by the people, this support is not for a single family, it is for all families. If you are a family head and because the support is coming and you want to divide your family into other different households that is not honesty and will not be sustainable to the state.
This is my concern because this is what they (people of CRR) did during the rice distribution too and now trying to attempt it, this is why we must be honest in presenting our facts to those effecting the payments,” governor Sanyang pointed out.
He stressed that falsification of household data will mislead the accuracy of the government data bank and also deny other genuine households from benefitting their lawful benefit.
“Some of the family heads are trying to inflates their depends numbers by dividing their families that traditionally belongs to the same households. I think we need to fear Allah and give support to our neighbors because if we fear Allah and want to give support to our neighbors it means let me limit by time for others to also pass, if I want to take all and leave others, sufferings continuous,” he stated.
Ousman Mankara, senior official from the Department of Community Development pointed out that his department’s role is to ensure that communities are well informed, sensitize and mobilised about the cash disbursement exercise.
He added Department of Community Development also facilitate and ensure that genuine households benefit from the government cash disbursement.
“Fundamentally, this financial support rendered to these poor and vulnerable will go a long way in building the resilience of families living in the country. And with the state of public emergency in place, this support means a lot to these families and many of whom are finding it difficult to make ends meet,” said Mankara.
He disclosed a significant number of Gambians have already received their cash payments and the cash distribution is in high gear and has already covered the whole of Foni and Lower River Region of the country respectively.
On his part, Jakongba Jabbie, Director of the Department of Social Welfare, also said their role in the exercise is to ensure that the cash distribution exercise is freely conducted with no complaint emanating from households.
“Our main role in this cash disbursement exercise is to handle all complaints from households. We also take care of other case of households who have been left out by referring such cases to a committee comprising of all partners for decision making,” Jabbie told The Voice.
He emphasized that Nafa Quick will go a long way in easing the difficulties of households across the country especially among the rural folks who are into their most difficult times of the years, cautioning that beneficiary households must use the cash for its rightful purpose of spending it on family needs.
