We are creating opportunities for ex-agitators, says PAP

.NGO tasks Tinubu to reduce monetary poverty

Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd), has said that his office is creating new opportunities for ex-agitators, beyond their dependence on N65, 000 monthly stipends.

Ndiomu, while speaking to journalists in Abuja on the commemoration of the 2023 International Day for Eradication of Poverty, affirmed that PAP’s initiatives were tied to eradicating poverty in the Niger Delta region.

Harping on this year’s theme of the Poverty Eradication Day, ‘Decent Work And Social Protection: Putting Dignity In Practice For All,’ Ndiomu said the initiatives introduced by PAP would create windows of opportunities for ex-agitators to escape the prediction of the World Bank, which estimates that over the next decade, “one billion young people will try to enter the job market, but less than half of them will find formal jobs.”

He recalled that initiatives, such as the PAP Cooperative Scheme, Empowerment/Vocational training and many others that are still in the pipeline, would solve the problem of poverty and change the negative narratives in the region.

The Interim Administrator revealed that over 700 ex-agitators have so far received funding in loans to undertake agribusinesses and other lucrative ventures, while 2,500 applications are waiting to be processed.

Meanwhile, a non-governmental organisation, Civil Empowerment and Rule of Law Support Initiative (CERLSI), a civil society working on elections, rule of law, human rights and community engagement for good governance in Nigeria, yesterday, said that unless the Nigerian government works at reducing monetary poverty in Nigeria, the country stands a very good chance of staying as world poverty capital permanently.

CERLSI Deputy Executive Director, Bob Majiri Oghene Etemiku, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City, the Ed

Etemiku, who said that monetary poverty in Nigeria is measured at 40.1 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), noted that in Nigeria, the poverty headcount rate increases as the household size increases.

He said: “Households with one person have the lowest poverty headcount rate at 2.66 per cent, while households with 10 or more people have the highest poverty headcount rate starting at 67.27 per cent.”