*5.5 million school children to be fed for 200 school days in first phase
of homegrown school feeding programme
*Over 1.6 million Nigerian traders, market women, men, artisans to receive
loans.
*1 million extremely poor and vulnerable Nigerians to receive N60,000 this
year in 12 months payments of N5000 each.
All together the federal government would be directly impacting the lives
of more than 8 million Nigerians in different social investment 2016
budget spending that would provide succor and be a ready-made palliative
to ordinary Nigerians.
This disclosure was made last night by the Senior Special Assistant for
Media & Publicity to the President, Mr. Laolu Akande, in an interaction
with the press in Abuja.
He gave new details and a breakdown of the interventions and palliatives,
some of which he said would be starting in a matter of weeks thus:
1.*the direct payment of N5000 monthly to one million extremely poor
Nigerians for 12 months as provided for in the 2016 budget for which
N$68.7B has been appropriated.
2*the direct provision of very soft loan -cash for market women, men and
traders, including artisans and Agric workers. This would be for a total
of 1.76m Nigerians, without the requirement for conventional collateral.
Some of the traders will likely get about N60,000. A total sum of N140.3B
has already been appropriated for this in the budget
3*payment of between N23,000 to N30,000 per month to 500,000 unemployed
graduates who would be trained, paid and deployed to work as volunteer
teachers, public health officers and extension service workers among other
responsibilities.
-They would also be given electronic devices to empower them
technologically both for their assignments and beyond
-similarly 100,000 artisans would also be trained and paid
N191.5B has been set aside for this in the passed budget.
4. At least 5.5 million Nigerian primary school children -ie starting
first in
18 states-three per geopolitical zones-would be fed for 200 school days
under the free Homegrown School Feeding Programme.
N93.1B has been appropriated for this in the 2016 budget.
5. 100,000 tertiary students in Science Technology Engineering &
Maths-STEM, plus Education will partake in the N5.8B already provided for
this education grant in the budget. This payment would also be paid
directly to the students.
When added together this year alone, more than 8 million Nigerians would
be benefiting from the Social Investment budget.
Akande who works from the Office of the Vice President said the N500B
social investement programmes of the Buhari administration is a ready made
palliative to lift Nigerians from poverty and economic hardship.
“Long before now the Presidency has made adequate arrangements in the 2016
budget to ensure that Nigerians are lifted from poverty and hardship,” the
spokesperson stated.
This will not only assuage the current pains arising from the new fuel
pricing regime, but will provide ongoing social safety nets for over 8
million Nigerians this year alone, according to Akande.
He added that this is beside the jobs that would be created by the
infrastructural projects that would be restored and the new ones that
would soon be taking off.
Said he: “the Buhari presidency is keen to ensure that Nigerians are
lifted and that if necessary on an ongoing basis palliatives measures
would always been considered to address the conditions of the people.”