Nafa Quick is a government programme with the objectives of providing cash transfers and behavioural change activities to poor households in 30 districts in the country; in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials said the money will be distributed to 83,000 households in 30 districts within the country. The Nafa Quick package will last for four months.
NaNA officials further added that the entire project amounts to US$31m with the World Bank contributing $30m, while The Gambia government gives the remainder.
The Nafa Quick package intends to contribute to the mitigation of the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on the population with a view to providing immediate universal cash transfer of D1, 500 per month to each beneficiary household.
With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic and the stringent measures to prevent and contain the virus, as well as mitigate its impact on food and nutrition security, the Nafa programme was restructured to contribute to the fight against the pandemic through Nafa Quick.
Lamin Njie, an official from the country’s nutrition agency spoke at length on the significance of the project, saying: “The objective of the project is to improve the coordination of social assistance, activities and increase inclusion of the extremely poor in the Nafa Programme.”
Mr. Njie added: “The project will target approximately 15,606 extremely poor households within the 20 poorest districts in The Gambia. This equates to approximately 40 percent of the extremely poor households in The Gambia.”
Abdou Aziz, also from NaNA said the project would help poor households in order to cope with the negative effects of COVID-19. Nafa Quick package, he added would also include behavioural change and activities so as to improve households’ health, nutrition, early childhood development, adolescence, parenting and family planning in order to prevent gender-based violence.
