Cross River Begins Training of Ward Officers for Statewide Social Intervention Programme

By BANNERNEWS Reporter, Calabar
The Cross River State Government has commenced the training of officials who will drive its social intervention programme across the state’s 196 political wards.
The capacity-building exercise, organised through the Office of Social Intervention and Investment Programme, targets 221 facilitators comprising 196 Ward Development Officers (WDOs) and 25 Local Government Liaison Officers.
State Coordinator of the programme, Dr Edem Okokon Effiom, disclosed this while speaking with journalists after the training workshop for participants from the Southern Senatorial District in Calabar.
Effiom said the exercise would be extended to the Central and Northern Senatorial Districts to equip officers with the skills required to implement the programme effectively at the grassroots.
He explained that the training is designed to strengthen the capacity of Ward Development Officers to identify social intervention needs in their respective communities and ensure efficient delivery of government support.
According to him, the initiative is aimed at advancing Governor Bassey Otu’s “People First” agenda by expanding the state’s social safety net to vulnerable and hard-to-reach residents.
He disclosed that 87 Ward Development Officers and nine Local Government Liaison Officers from the Southern Senatorial District participated in the first phase of the training held over the weekend.
Effiom said each of the state’s 196 wards would have 150 beneficiaries under the programme, with 100 people receiving direct cash transfers while another 50 would benefit from one-off empowerment support.
He added that beneficiaries would be selected from communities across the wards without discrimination based on political affiliation, stressing that members of churches, the Muslim community and other groups would all be eligible for consideration.