President Mohammadu Buhari’s decision to set aside N500 billion to cater for the poor is not a one-off programme, the Presidency said yesterday in Abuja, adding that it is a combination of several well-thought out programmes to directly connect with the extremely poor, and the needy.
Senior Special Assistant Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said yesterday the plan of the Buhari presidency is not only comprehensive but has taken care of some of the factors that led to the failure of previous poverty alleviation schemes in the past.
“One of the major differences here is that the social intervention programme such as the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, would be a direct transfer of N5000 monthly to the extremely poor among us. And this is a safety net that several advanced nations have put in place for a long time in their history often in times of economic challenges.”
The money would be paid directly to the people concerned on the condition of school enrollment and immunization.
“This way , we are expanding school enrollment and also assuring physical well-being.”
Besides that, Akande explained that the School Feeding Programme which is another aspect of the social intervention is going to be entirely homegrown, unlike previous Federal Government plans which relied on importation.
He said the “Homegrown school feeding programme” will commence in public primary schools in the new year providing adequate nutrition to school children, promoting local farming, boosting agriculture and creating jobs and wealth locally.
“We have experts working in the Presidency, collaborating with experts from global bodies who together bring to bear international best practices on how best to implement these programmes.
“I can tell you that no sooner President Buhari resumed work, that many of these experts have been meeting and planning on how best to implement these plans. We are not talking here of something hurriedly put together or a programme where some consultants would take the huge chunk of the resources.”
Also, as part of the N500billon, there is in the budget proposals, a provision of no fewer than one million jobs in 2016, including 500,000 graduate-youths to be engaged as teachers and another 500,000 non-graduate unemployed people who would be trained as artisans, making a total creation of about one million direct jobs.
He added that the presidency is aware of past failures in the poverty alleviation efforts and determined not to repeat them.
“As the president disclosed in the budget speech, he has asked the Vice President to coordinate the programmes and I can tell you that serious work is already apace”, Akande added.
