Technology is solving the Challenges of the Humanitarian Aid/Grant Administration in Nigeria.

The picture above speaks a thousand words about the issues and challenges many aid givers and aid organizations have had to grapple with in the aid administration process globally.

In Nigeria, the case is not any different. Since the outbreak of the humanitarian crisis largely caused by insurgency and insecurity, the attention of the global humanitarian community has been drawn to the country, attracting both local and international aid organizations.

Although these aid organizations have helped to a reasonable extent in alleviating the sufferings of many Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). There still are a lot of challenges with the process.

Aid administration in the country has been met with lots of bureaucracy and corruption, and sometimes aid/grants do not end up getting to the people for which they were intended, causing a lot of skepticism about aid donation among donors and aid organizations.

The Solution to Humanitarian Aid/Grants Administration in Nigeria

In the bid to steed these tides over the years, different solutions have been tried all having their accompanying challenges and loopholes.

But in recent times, it seems the introduction of technology into the system has brought these issues of transparency, accountability, and impact faced by these donor and aid organizations to the barest minimum. Different technological solutions have found a way to solve the problems of transparency and accountability, logistics, aid utilization, etc. One major player in this sector addressing these issues is AidCard Systems.

AidCard Systems is an innovative startup using technology to automate the process of aid/grants administration to the vulnerable, hungry, displaced, poor, and people living below $1.00 per day in Nigeria.

Because of the various challenges noticed in the process of aid distribution and administration both in the field and administratively, AidCard designed a unique system that allows aid givers and aid organizations to give aid/grant through an innovative tokenized system straight to the intended end-beneficiaries with the donors being able to track and see how the distributed aid/grant is expended by their beneficiaries in real-time through our system. This approach is effective as the system delivers accurate and detailed data of activities, transactions, reports, and charts of aid distribution. And to ensure the aid/grants get to the target beneficiaries, AidCard conducts monitoring and evaluation activities to assess the effect of humanitarian, government, and individual interventions/programs on the target beneficiaries.

In addressing the issues of aid/grant impact, AidCard works with competent and experienced field agents who manage the identification, profiling, and verification of beneficiaries to access aid/grant from humanitarian organizations, government, and philanthropist corporations/individuals. The profiled beneficiaries are then furnished with cards (aid cards) to allow them access items needed for their daily survival from a network of verified vendors across the country. These items are donations, aid/grants made by aid givers, donors, and aid organizations.

The idea behind this approach is to ensure that beneficiaries are impacted by the aid they receive. The cards help them access items they truly need for their day-to-day survival, not items which out of goodwill donors presume they need but in real life might not necessarily be the case.

As the government and different aid organizations try to stay on top of the humanitarian crisis and manage the escalation of poverty, diseases, and other health challenges, it is important, technology and innovative solutions like that of the AidCard Systems are brought to the forefront to help in the control and management of things, to create the atmosphere of transparency, accountability, impact and to ensure that donations and solutions get to the last-mile, the beneficiaries.