The Nigerian government has released N37 billion naira for the implementation of the Survival Fund, a component of the country’s N2.3 trillion Economic Sustainability Plan, ESP.
This was one of the highlights of reports presented by ministers and heads of agencies at Monday’s meeting of the Economic Sustainability Committee presided over by Nigeria’s Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
The amount covers such schemes as the N50,000 Payroll Support for three months to over 300,000 beneficiaries, one-time grants of N30,000 to about 100,000 artisans, and 100,000 business name registrations paid for by the Federal Government.
While the Minister of State for Industry, Trade & Investment Ambassador Mariam Katagum reported the progress of the Survival Fund to the Committee, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele also reported on the bank’s intervention including disbursement of over N192B for household/MSMEs grants to 426,000 beneficiaries across the country, with plans to do over N100B more in that category named Targeted Credit Facility.
The CBN Governor also disclosed that under the collateral-free Agric-Business/Small & Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme, there are ongoing grants of concessionary loans from between N150,000 to N2.5million. In that category, the Governor disclosed that over N106B has been disbursed so far to over 27,000 beneficiaries.
In the Agric sector, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Alhaji Sabo Nanono also reported that under the ESP, a total of 5.4million farmers have now been enumerated to get the support under the plan. He added that for the enumeration which involved geospatial tagging, almost 73,000 N-Power volunteers were trained and 30,000 of them deployed to 774 Local Government Areas. For the purposes of funding through the CBN, the Minister disclosed that 2.9million of the farmers have had their BVN enrollment validated.
Also, the clearing of 3,200 hectares of land for farming is ongoing in several States including Edo, Plateau, Ekiti, Cross River, Ogun, Kaduna, Kwara, and Osun States while rural road constructions have reached about 28% completion covering 344km, linking about 500 markets across the country.
The Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami also briefed the Committee that broadband penetration in the country has moved from 38% last year to 45% now, while over 170 institutions have been registered to conduct the NIN. He also said Telcos would be licensed for the enrollment, while over 1060 registration centres have been activated across the country for the NIN. He reports that a total of 56.18million NINs have been collected by mobile network operators.
Others who briefed the Committee included the Labour, Employment and Productivity Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, and his Minister of State colleague Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN. In his presentation, Dr Ngige listed the Federal Government’s efforts to prevent the retrenchment of staff in the Private Sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He listed some hotel companies who agreed not to retrench and it was also disclosed that bankers have all committed not to retrench staff at this time.
Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola reported on the ministry’s coordinated FG Public Works Programme, while Mr Keyamo reported on the progress of the Special Public Works that hires 774,000 workers across all Local Government Areas of the country.
A release by the spokesman to the Vice President, Laolu Akande said other presentations were made on the Rapid Response Register launched recently by the Vice President and the Social Housing Scheme of the ESP.
Other ministers at the meeting were the Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Petroleum Resources Minister of State, Mr Timipre Sylva.
Zainab Sa’id
