By CALLISTUS OFFOR, Abuja –
The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) on Wednesday said it is partnering with relevant agencies to ensure that it meets the needs of the 15% of the population of Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWD) in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of NCPWD, Mr. James David Lalu disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing newsmen at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja
“The coming together of these partners including World Bank (WB), Foreign and Common Wealth Office of the British High Commission and Sight Savers to form the Nigerian Disability Partnership Group (NDPG) is very important to us as a community and it will provide financial, technical needs and support for various disability groups in Nigeria”.
This he said would help the Commission in achieving the long and medium targets of implementing its 5 years strategic plan.
To achieve this, Mr. Lalu said the commission will set up its secretariat in Abuja with the aim of coordinating and harmonizing the activities of the Nigerian Disability Partnership Group (NDPG).
“We will coordinate the various agencies promoting the course of PLWDs in Nigeria alongside the numbers of their interventions and their beneficiaries. At the end of every quarter, we should be able to provide relevant data of what is happening to disability groups in Nigeria”.
While noting that 10% of the total National development programmes has been reserved for disability communities in Nigeria, Mr. Lalu noted that the Commission will continue to mobilize beneficiaries to fill up the 10% slots provided by the Federal Government.
“For instance, in the ongoing N-power Batch C stream 2, we are seriously working to ensure that people living with disabilities are mobilized and included as beneficiaries of the program”.
On his part, The Technical Assistant from World Bank, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo, explained that the Nigerian Disability Partnership Group (NDPG) would provide technical, financial and material supports to the commission in other to meet its mandate across various sectors in the country.
“We have a lot of international development partners, Civil Society Organizations, private firms all working across various sectors in the country”.
“In other to harmonize all these sectors, The Executive Secretary of The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities with support from the World Bank, Commonwealth Development Office have come together to set up Nigerian Disability Partnership Group (NDPG)”.
“In the long run, the idea of this partnership group is to ensure that whatever is being done to support people living with disabilities in Nigeria are documented and harmonized, so as to avoid duplication, waste of resources and unnecessary competition”.
“The NDPG will ensure the consolidation of efforts across various sectors”. He said.
Mr. Adebayo noted that the secretariat of NDPG will be domicile in the Commission headquarters in Abuja and it will be managed by the staff of the Commission together with technical and other forms of supports from development partners.
He said the supports from development partners will run for the period of one year and after proper evaluation steps are done, the commission will then know other areas were supports are needed.
“We can’t stop abruptly. The Commission will continue to receive support where and when they are needed and this is what NDPG will help the Commission to achieve”.
“There will be regular reviews to know which areas of supports the Commission needs and that will be after proper evaluation”. He said.
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