From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, rated itself high in the areas of poverty alleviation, job creation and drastic reduction of unemployment through the National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP).
Government, through the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Johnson, gave the assessment in Abuja at the first humanitarian open house and launch of the IDP Policy, entitled ‘Coordinating for Durable Humanitarian Solutions; the Journey so far.’
She explained that, under batch C stream 1 of the N-Power, “510,000 currently enrolled and benefitting from the programme while an additional 490,000 will be enrolled following Presidential approval to increase the number to one million.
“What this means for the economy is that one million young people will in the next year be equipped with requisite skills in different fields through hands on and on the job exposure and experience so they can be equipped to start their own businesses or secure jobs based on the experience they will gain on the programme.
“This will also translate into the emergence of micro, small and medium enterprises that will contribute to the economy and provide means of livelihoods for the owners and others they will employ while contributing to a qualified and experienced work force that can drive corporate success and economic growth.”
On the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP), she said, “presently, almost 10 million children in 54, 619 schools are benefiting from this creative programme with 120,000 cooks, about 100,000 small holder farmers and numerous aggregators are also benefitting the programme nationwide.”
The reminded participants that, “recently, we reviewed the cost of feeding each child from N70 to N100 per meal.
On the Conditional Cash Transfer, she said said, it “provides targeted monthly Base Cash Transfer of NGN 5,000 to the eligible PVHHs mined from the NSR.
“The transfer is to help improve their consumption levels and to encourage them to develop savings skills.
“The overall objective is aimed at reducing poverty, preventing the vulnerable households from becoming poorer and building their ability to be better than what they were before they started benefiting from the programme.
“The conditional cash transfer serves as a buffer for economic shocks and caters for household consumption needs.
“Besides disbursement of stipends to beneficiaries, beneficiaries are encouraged and guided to form cooperatives among themselves for the purpose of contributing and saving a portion of their stipends into a collective purse which they could invest in micro businesses, the proceeds of which members of the cooperative benefit from.
“They are provided with capacity building trainings in the areas of Savings and Group Mobilisation (SGM), Life Skills(ls) Micro Business Development Plan (MBDP), Livelihood activities as well as co-orientation and nutrition training for co-responsibility.”