The federal government would be directly impacting the lives of more than eight million Nigerians in different social investment 2016 budget spending that would provide succour and be a ready-made palliative to ordinary Nigerians.
This disclosure was made on Saturday night by the Senior Special Assistant for Media and Publicity to the Vice 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:
- The direct payment of N5,000 monthly to one million extremely poor Nigerians for 12 months as provided for in the 2016 budget for which N68.7B has been appropriated.
- 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
- 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.
- At least 5.5 million Nigerian primary school children -ie starting first in 18 states – three per geopolitical zone, 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.
- 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 that the 500billion Naira social investment 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.
“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.”
