The Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS), has lauded strides recorded by the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) within a span of two years of existence as a federal government agency.
Chairman of the forum and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed made the commendation while receiving the Director General, National Senior Citizens Centre, Dr Emem Omokaro at the Forum’s Secretariat in Abuja, a statement by the NSCC Spokesperson Mr. Omini Oden noted.
Ahmed while commending the Federal Government for setting up an agency with the mandate to identify the needs of senior citizens in Nigeria and to cater for them, assured the NSCC Director General of the willingness of the Forum of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries to work with NSCC towards achieving its mandate.
Some of the areas he mentioned include, collaboration with NSCC to ensure that older persons are mainstreamed into programs at the national and sub-national levels as well as an appeal to State governments to domesticate the National Policy on Ageing and the National Senior Citizens Centre Act, as this will enable proper and seamless decentralization of Ageing and matters of older persons in Nigeria.
Earlier, Director General of the National Senior Citizens Centre, Dr Emem Omokaro said being a strategic forum that is focused on key public policy issues, NSCC is seeking partnerships that will promote positive change in perception, attitude and paradigm shift about ageing and old age as well as foster economic development opportunities at investing in enhanced capacities of senior citizens.
Key to her request for partnership is in navigating the social safety nets for the older persons nationwide, support in mainstreaming older persons in relevant ministries, Departments and Agencies as NSCC has already established 40 Ageing desks in MDAs after training and retraining 80 desk officers to enable multi-sectoral participation, intervention and implementation through ageing mainstreaming.
Dr Omokaro informed the forum of NSCC’s flagship programs, including the Continuing Engagement Bureau, Senior-led multi-purpose cooperatives, Sector wide approach to livelihood and Entrepreneurship Development, Grandmothers Arise for Good for Small-holder Farmers with support for value chains and memorandum of understanding with up-takers as well as development of Care Quality Assurance and Regulatory Frameworks for training and certification of domiciliary care givers to Older Persons.
