Presidency to begin N500 Billion socialwelfare programmes

The Presidency has unfurled tentative details on the
implementation of its N500 billion social welfare
programme, revealing that one million extremely poor
Nigerians would be direct beneficiaries of the

N5,000 monthly cash transfer.
The payment which is to commence once the budget
is approved by the National Assembly, is besides
another five social interventions that include the
provision of one meal a day to school pupils in some
selected states.
A total of N60 billion would be directly transferred
to the one million extremely poor Nigerians,
according to a statement issued by the Office of the
Vice-President in accordance to President
Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of building human
capital. Other elements of the social intervention
scheme revealed, yesterday, include the 500,000
direct jobs, which will see unemployed graduates
being trained and deployed as volunteer teachers in
their communities while still prospecting for jobs in
their chosen professions.
The details as released by Mr. Adeolu Akande, Senior
Special Assistant, Media in the office of the Vice-
President, also disclosed a youth employment plan
which will see the training of 370,000 non-
graduates youths in different skills and vocational
programmes. “The recruitment of beneficiaries into
the volunteer teaching jobs and the skill acquisition
training scheme for non-graduates would be done on
state basis, including the FCT and opened to all
Nigerians of different shades,” Akande said.
Another initiative also revealed is the micro credit
scheme where one million Nigerians, mostly small
scale traders, artisans and market women, 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 and Mathematics, STEM, where
government will pay tuition for 100,000 students.
Explaining the administration’s determination to
positively impact the capacity of Nigerians through
the unprecedented intervention, Akande disclosed that
at no time in the nation’s budgetary history had the
Federal Government made a specific vote of such
volume for social welfare. “Even economic historians
now say that not only is the half a trillion Naira
vote unprecedented, but it is also the greatest service
ever done to the Nigerian state and people by any
federal government administration,” Akande said.
He noted that the six social safety plans would
reduce high levels of poverty and vulnerabilities,
while also increasing Nigeria’s Human Development
Index on the global UN rankings. “The President’s
vision is to increase investments in human capital to
guarantee security for all, employment and improved
well-being of the people,” the Vice President’s
media aide added. He disclosed that the Presidency
was aware that past attempts to address poverty had
suffered because of insufficient political will,
presence of various UN-uncoordinated initiatives and
poorly targeted beneficiaries, among other factors,
and was working to avoid the pitfalls.
The Senior Special Assistant said for the Conditional
Cash Transfer, CCT, where one million extremely poor
Nigerians will receive N5000 monthly in 2016, the
money would be paid directly to the beneficiaries
through a payment system that is being worked out.
He said the World Bank and the Bill Gates
Foundation were collaborating with the Presidency to
develop an efficient payment system. All together,
about N60 billion had been estimated to be paid out
to extremely poor Nigerians. And the implementation
of the programme starts once the budget is passed.

Source