No less than 25 million meals have been served under the National
\nHomegrown School Feeding Programme, (SIP), of the Buhari administration,
\neven as the Presidency is now implementing a huge ramp up of the Social
\nInvestment Programmes as directed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.<\/p>\n
At the end of last month, the Buhari administration has spent a total
\nN41,714,793,293 across all the 36 States and FCT implementing different
\naspects of the four Social Investment Programmes.<\/p>\n
But a far more significant and urgent ramp-up of the Social Investment
\nspending is now on the way as directed by Prof. Osinbajo.<\/p>\n
A breakdown of the total number of meals served show that 1,051, 619
\nmillion primary school pupils are now being fed across the seven states of
\nAnambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Zamfara state. No less than
\n11,847 cooks have also been employed. Altogether 8,587 schools are
\ninvolved in those States.<\/p>\n
Indeed possibly, later in the week, more meals will be served as Delta and
\nAbia States are now ready to be paid under the federal government school
\nfeeding scheme.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Delta State is expected to receive soon, a sum of N63, 366,
\n100 to start the feeding of 90, 523 primary school pupils. In the same
\nvein, Abia State is also expected to receive\u00a0 N42, 921, 200.<\/p>\n
Besides, Kaduna State has now been repaid N3.4B for its past expenses
\nimplementing the food programme ahead of FG\u2019s roll-out.<\/p>\n
In a breakdown of the over N41B so far spent on the SIPs, N-Power, which
\nis the job programme for unemployed graduates has received N26.418
\nbillion, being the single largest spending item out of the four social
\ninvestment programmes under the 2016 Appropriation.<\/p>\n
Beside, N-Power, actual released funding for the other 3 programmes, apart
\nfrom other expenses, so far, are as follows:<\/p>\n
* Home Grown School Feeding (HGSFP) –\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 N7.092 billion<\/p>\n
* Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0–\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 N800 million<\/p>\n
* Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP)\u00a0 –\u00a0 \u00a0 N7.301
\nbillion<\/p>\n
The Acting President who had received the SIP Update Report recently noted
\nthe progress made under each of the programmes, but gave express and
\nurgent directives that the programmes be promptly expanded in coverage so
\nthat more Nigerians can start to benefit.<\/p>\n
A comprehensive SIP implementation analysis shows that every local
\ngovernment area, every State and the FCT have beneficiaries in one of the
\nfour programmes, while some states are already benefiting in more than
\none.<\/p>\n
For instance, under the N-Power job scheme for unemployed graduates now
\nrunning in 36 States and FCT, 162,024 unemployed graduates have been
\neffectively enrolled and validated-meaning have been cleared to be
\nreceiving the N30,000 monthly stipends, out of the 200,000 originally
\nengaged late last year.<\/p>\n
A vast majority of the validated beneficiaries have been receiving
\nstipends as at 31st March, 2017. Indeed an additional number has just been
\nadded to the list of those receiving their pay in the last several weeks.<\/p>\n
However, effort is being made to validate others and ensure that the
\n200,000 places provided for in the first batch of the N-Power programme
\nare all effectively validated as provided for under the first phase of the
\nprogramme.<\/p>\n
A date for the engagement of more N-power beneficiaries and the reopening
\nof the portal to receive more applications would be announced soon.<\/p>\n
Under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, 26,942 beneficiaries are
\nnow being funded as at last month with the monthly N5,000 stipend in 9
\nStates and 84 Local Government Areas. The States are Borno, Cross River,
\nNiger, Kwara, Ekiti, Kogi, Oyo, Osun and Bauchi.<\/p>\n
Based on the recent directive of the Acting President, the number is
\nexpected to add up to about 400,000 beneficiaries (and in more States) in
\na couple of months.<\/p>\n
Also the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) designed for
\nthe empowerment of market women, traders, artisans and co. has also
\nrecorded good progress with the disbursement of 57,234 interest free
\nloans, except a one-time low administrative fee.<\/p>\n
GEEP which is designed for well over one million Nigerians has now
\nregistered 3,162,451 people who have showed interest and are members of
\n26, 924 registered cooperatives for purposes of the loans. So far, women
\nparticipation has been remarkable with 56% of loans so far disbursed to
\nwomen beneficiaries in 28 States and FCT.<\/p>\n
Directives have also been given to scale up the loan disbursement to
\n150,000 by end of next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No less than 25 million meals have been served under the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, (SIP), of the Buhari administration, even as the Presidency is now implementing a huge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n