Makinde begins palliatives' distribution Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State will flag off the distribution of palliatives to over 200,000 households across the state.

Today's flagoff in Oyo town will be followed by distribution to other geo-political zones from Thursday.

Items to be distributed include 10kg rice, 5 kg of garri, 5kg beans, 5kg elubo and 1 ltr of vegetable oil.

The state commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Dotun Oyelade, who disclosed this during a press briefing on Tuesday, said the sum of N8.63 billion has been earmarked for palliatives.

Oyelade said the local government areas contributed N2.63 billion while the state government put in N5.99 billion.

Oyelade said the distribution will be done in different batches and aimed at alleviating the pains of residents in the wake of the petrol subsidy removal.

"If you assume that every family has about 6 members, we are talking about over 1 million people to be affected by the initial rollout of palliatives," Oyelade said.

Giving a further breakdown, the state Commissioner for Budget, Professor Musbau Babatunde, said the government earmarked N149.1 million for the Transportation sub-committee.

He said the budget includes logistics, branding of buses, personnel, and diesel costs.

He added that 100,000 vulnerable members of the society will also be catered for by the state government.

The Commissioner added that personnel of security outfits, including Amotekun, Nigerian Army, Police force, and Civil defence, who are the first line of defence in the State, will benefit from the palliatives.

Civil servants within the low rung of civil service will also be beneficiaries of the gesture.

Babatunde assured residents of efficiency in the distribution- methods, saying the Oyo State Government has put a monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place.

On Food Security, which will cater to Agropreneurs and Small and Medium scale enterprises and farmers, the Oyo State Government, he said, government earmarked N1.701 million while loans to be rolled out to SMEs will cost N510 million.

In the Healthcare sector, the Commissioner said N1 billion has been set aside to cater for the health Insurance of 50,000 pensioners, at N4,000 each.