The Nigerian government says it is in the process of training those who benefited from its social investment programmes, to enable them earn a living and be more useful to the society.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq made the disclosure on Thursday at the weekly briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team.
Farouq said the strategy is part of the exit programmes put in place for those who have successfully completed their two year training under the N-Power scheme.
She said: “We have an exit strategy in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria and out of 500, 000 beneficiaries, already about 300, 000 have indicated interest to be part of the exit programme where they can be trained in various skills of their choice, after which they will be given loans by the Central Bank of Nigeria, for them to start their businesses.
“On this, we have gone far and we are in the process of training those that indicated interest and I am sure before the end of this quarter, these people will be given these loans by the CBN. As a Ministry or government agency, we don’t give loans.”
N-Power programme
The Minister noted that a lot of unemployed Nigerians have so far benefited from the N-Power programme, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
“In the batch ‘A’ and ‘B’, 500, 000 people benefited on that programme for a period of four years and we were giving them N30, 000 monthly stipend while the batch ‘B’ benefited for two years. These are people who were not employed; they had nothing to do but they were engaged to have a decent living.
“Some of them were wise enough to save from their monthly stipends and through that, 109 000 of them have now become entrepreneurs and employers of labour. This is a very laudable programme and people have benefitted, people are being supported and it is a continuous process,” she said.
School Feeding Programme
The Minister explained that over nine million pupils are being fed daily across the country, leading to an increase in school enrolment.
“The National Homegrown School Feeding Programme is a programme that is all encompassing because it helps in the economic value chain of various communities where you feed these children using the rural women to cook the food thus empowering the women likewise the local farmers that produce the crops.
“Through this programme, we have impacted a lot of people and that runs into millions of people. For the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, over 1.6 million people have so far benefitted. Yes, we have lifted millions out of poverty through our programmes,” the Minister explained.
Intervention programme
On the insinuation in some quarters that the Ministry has refused to give interventions to Benue State and concentrates its intervention programmes in only the North-East and North-West regions of the country, Farouq debunked such claims saying all parts of the country are captured in the activities of the humanitarian ministry.
“That is not true. Our ministry is for the whole country. The only agency under the Ministry that is focused on the North-East is the North-East Development Commission, just like the Niger-Delta Commission.
“We send intervention to all parts of the country where it is needed. You also cited Benue State. That State cannot say that the Federal government does not support them or does not give them interventions to them.
“I remember very well, even while I was in the Refugees Commission, I had course to visit Benue State on several occasions, taking interventions to the displaced persons in that State; infact during one of such visits, we went with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Even currently, the Refugees Commission and NEMA, they all take interventions to Benue State,” she said.
Nneka Ukachukwu
