The presidency has said that its provision of N500b for social welfare in the 2016 budget is informed by the need to pay attention to the masses in a way that has never been done before.
According to Mr Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, this is the first time ever that the welfare of the people is being provided for in the budget.
“Economic historians say that not only is the half a trillion naira vote unprecedented, but it is also the greatest service ever done to the people by any Federal Government,” he said.
He explained that there are six social safety plans in the budget to reduce poverty and vulnerabilities and improve Nigeria’s Human Development Index on the global United Nations ranking.
He said that the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), by which one million poor Nigerians will receive N5,000 monthly in 2016, will be paid directly to beneficiaries through a payment system that is being fine-tuned.
He added that the World Bank and the Bill Gates Foundation were collaborating with the Presidency to work out an efficient payment system.
Noting that implementation of the welfare programs would begin as soon as the budget is passed, Akande said that the system has been designed to eliminate middle men.
“In the case of the CCT, those one million poor Nigerians would be paid directly, while in the case of the Homegrown School Feeding, the suppliers of the meals to primary school pupils would also be paid directly by the Federal Government. There would be no middle agents involved, official or private,” he said.
He said that beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer would have to immunize their children and enroll them in school as a precondition.
Akande noted that the Buhari administration also has other social investment plans.
“There is also a Youth Employment plan to take 370,000 non-graduate youths through skill acquisition and vocational training programmes. As the teaching jobs, the selection of beneficiaries for this scheme would be done on states and FCT basis, open to Nigerians of different shades.
“For small scale traders, artisans and market women, there is the Micro Credit scheme where one million Nigerians would get a one-time soft loan of N60,000 each through the Bank of Industry.
“And finally there is the Free Education plan for students of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), where government will pay tuition for 100,000 students.”
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