FG claims to feed 10m children daily

Says 1,632,480 households benefited from cash transfer

The Federal Government has claimed that 10 million children are fed daily under its Social Investment Programme (SIP), while 1,632,480 households benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme.

CCT facilitates the transfer of N5,000 monthly to beneficiaries, which is paid bi-monthly to all eligible households selected from the National Social Register (NSR).

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who has been anchoring the President Muhammadu Buhari admin claimed, yesterday, that the government provided functional rail transportation across the country.

Reacting to the position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Buhari’s administration has failed to deliver the promised dividends of democracy to the masses and, as such, has nothing to campaign with, the minister urged the opposition to look for another campaign line rather than ludicrous claims.

Mohammed said: “Have they not seen, have they not heard of our National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) that is unprecedented in the history of this country? No administration in the history of Nigeria has had a Social Investment Programme (SIP) that feeds 10 million school children a day; a cash transfer scheme that has enrolled 1,632,480 households (not individuals), a scheme that empowers and pays stipends to unemployed graduates and an Enterprise Empowerment Programme (EEP) that provides easily-accessible micro loans to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid, who engage in commercial activities but face significant challenges with access to finance and credit?”

Also, the Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare, noted that government has no plan to make the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) programme optional. He spoke against calls by many to scrap the mandatory one-year programme.

Dare stated that the rationale behind the establishment of the scheme in 1973 was to promote unity in the country. “The rationale behind the establishment of NYSC by Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) still subsists. Every country, including Nigeria, promotes its unity in diversity on daily basis.”

According to Dare, the livewire of any nation is its youths and once their patriotism is captured, it spreads across the entire nation.
The minister, however, decried the low income generating capacity of the sports sector of the economy.
Disclosing that only about $300,000 is generated from sports yearly, he, however, hoped that the new policy in place would help boost revenue generation in the sector.

On the issue of Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup tournament that just ended in Qatar, he said: “We tried, but our effort was not enough.”

He also highlighted his ministry’s effort to renovate stadia across the country, including the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, which, he said, receives over 300 visitors daily since renovation work was carried out to give it a facelift.