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‘How Buhari’s N500b welfare fund will be disbursed’

By Alifa Daniel and Mohammed Abubakar (Abuja)
04 January 2016   |   2:32 am
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.
Laolu Akande PHOTO: www.natashanotables.com

Laolu Akande PHOTO: www.natashanotables.com

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.

6 Comments

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    It will simply not work, in fact it won’t work, and even Buhari expects it not to work, and that is politics for you.

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      Working from answer to the question, I suppose you needed to have analyzed the proposed welfare program before making a submission. The usual Nigerian way of drawing a conclusion without having answered the main question, the right approach is to analyze the program and then draw up reasons why it will work or why it will not work. Do some intellectual work that will stand the test of time.

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    This is pure rubbish. one, when you train 500k in job skill, that doesn’t mean you have provided jobs. it is just training. second, what if the poor person getting this money, doesn’t have kids to send to school, or already has all the immunization? Nigeria can’t afford this kind of spending and we know that it is already poorly designed and would not be implemented properly. The alternative would have being better to employ this people in some capacity to earn that 5000. we have 100’s of infrastructure project that this people could have being employed in.

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    It is further poisoning the well. it is really well thought out as a political tool to create a dependent class in place of a vibrant private sector middle class. You want to pay 5000 to extremely poor people at a time you are owing salaries and talking about reducing minimum salary from 18000 to people who transport to work and sweep the roads and move office files? The dependent class will then become the APC ‘s way of bribing their way in future elections like fertlizer allocation before the last administration.But it will not happen because the same government wants to borrow 4 times the same 500 billion ie 2 trillion to build houses and renovate roads. any sane creditor who will borrow the government money will have conditionality to remove this santa claus program because indirectly, the government is borrowing money to give to ghost people. if not ghost, who will 5000 feed for 1 month?

  • Author’s gravatar

    The Federal Government’s policy to train 500,000 non-graduate unemployed people as artisans is an excellent idea

    The FGN and their private sector partners should also look into training Nigerians in brick making. Brick making technology is not complex. Nigeria has lots of clay, all over the place, for making bricks

    It is curious that the usage of local bricks has not kicked off in the construction industry