The Vice Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,
\nin 2019 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has explained why the cash transfer
\nstrategies employed by the Federal Government to lift people out of
\npoverty, will not work out in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Obi, who spoke on The Morning Show on Arise Television, said that the
\nplanned N5000 disbursement to 24 million people for a period of 6 months
\nwill not achieve the desired results of pulling people out of poverty.<\/p>\n
He argued that for one to be classified as living in poverty, the person
\nwill be earning $1.9 or less per day, which is approximately N800. He
\nsaid that the N800 when multiplied by 30 days amounts to N24,000, thus
\ngiving someone N5000 a month, when he needs at least N24,000 to survive,
\nwill have little or no effect, talk more of pulling them out of poverty.<\/p>\n
“Now if you divide N5000 with N400 exchange rate, it will give you
\n$12.50. When you divide $12.50 by 30 days, it gives you .42 cents. So by
\nsharing N5000 per month to them, you are only giving them about 20% of
\nthe $1.9 they require to live above poverty. Worse still, you are only
\npaying them the money for 6 months.<\/p>\n
“Any government that desires to pull its people out of poverty should
\nadopt a properly articulated fiscal and monetary stimulus to support
\nmicro, small, medium enterprises and also provide jobs that will pay
\npeople at least N25,000 per month”, Obi said.<\/p>\n
Telling of his experience in Bangladesh where some aggressive poverty
\neradication strategies worked well, Obi said “In 2008, I traveled to
\nBangladesh, with a team of professionals, where we studied poverty
\neradication strategies as employed by their government. We had encounter
\nwith the locals in rural areas, and we saw first hand the techniques
\nthey employed to pull their people out of poverty.<\/p>\n
“They had micro credit facilities at the rural level, supervised by the
\ngovernment but driven by the private sector. These credit institutions
\nsupport the locals in their trades and agricultural endeavours. The
\ngovernment also steps in to buy what ever is produced by the rural
\nresidents, which are in turn exported.<\/p>\n
“The consequence of this is that as of 2008 when we were there, the per
\ncapita income of Bangladesh was $635. Today, after 12 years of
\naggressive poverty eradication, their per capita income is $1900. Their
\nliteracy rate was 58% in the same 2008, today they are at 75%. Their
\nhuman development index (HDI), has also moved from low to medium.<\/p>\n
“If you compare Bangladesh with Nigeria, in the year 2008 our per capita
\nincome was $2240, while today, after 12 years, it is $2220. So our per
\ncapita income, instead of growing, reduced after 12 years. This is
\nbecause there has not been a well articulated, implementable and
\nmeasurable policies that can take people out of poverty.<\/p>\n
The Former Governor of Anambra said that apart from Bangladesh, there
\nwere many other countries who has followed that same poverty eradication
\nmodel and moved their citizens out of poverty. He said it would be wrong
\nfor the Federal Government to simply decide to pay 24 million people
\nN5000 each for 6 months, hoping that it would be enough to pull them out
\nof poverty.<\/p>\n
Obi said what is more worrisome about the whole cash transfer project is
\nthe lack of transparency and uncertainty that has characterised the
\nwhole process. He urged the government to invest in critical areas of
\ndevelopment if they truly desire to move people out of poverty. He said
\nthat supporting small businesses with fiscal and monetary stimuli will
\nbe more effective in eradicating poverty in the country.<\/p>\n
The Vice Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in 2019 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has explained why the cash transfer strategies employed by the Federal Government to lift…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n