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•Says FG’ll rejig N-Power Scheme
No fewer than 16 million Nigerians are affected by humanitarian crises either man-made or natural disaster with over 8.3 million of them based in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, who made the disclosure in a statement, yesterday, said aside from the North-East, Benue in the North/Central had been tagged the capital of humanitarian crises in Nigeria by the United Nations.
“We have a huge task on our hands, as we speak now, over 16m Nigerians are affected by humanitarian crises either man-made or natural disaster with over 8.3m of them based in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
”Several states in the North Central; and others spread across the country.
“The UN said Benue had become the humanitarian need capital in Nigeria, and as such, a lot of work needs to be done in the humanitarian angle.
“One of the agendas of the Tinubu administration is to ensure that poverty is alleviated in Nigeria in line with the SDG goal one.
“The president is coming up with a very robust programme to lift Nigerians out of poverty.
“Our work is to see how we can get those in poverty out and those at the verge of getting into poverty increase social safety to protect them from falling into poverty.
“In a couple of weeks, we will be fully launching into these plans to take out over 136 million Nigerians out of poverty as implementation has started to help cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.”
She said the ministry had come up with innovative ways of thorough verification of the social register for accuracy and transparency.
“We are bringing innovations to ensure transparency in Conditional Cash Transfer by carrying out a thorough verification of the social register, validate and then expand it to accommodate more persons.
“We will be working with the World Bank while seeking approval from the President to begin the Conditional Cash Transfer to Nigerians” she said.
The minister promised to upgrade, rejig and expand the social safety net programme to accommodate more people through a transparent process.
“We want to increase the Social Safety Net for Nigerians in a transparent manner by counting the numbers together just as we counted COVID-19 cases using a digitalised system.
“We are very conscious of the fact that Mr President’s passion and true intentions are to ensure that we can lift Nigerians out of poverty.
“Party politics is over, now is time for governance, President Tinubu is a president for everyone irrespective of political party,” she said.
She, therefore, assured Nigerians that the ministry would soon come up with an accurate and acceptable social register to curb the challenge associated with disparity in the register.
”Ministry would soon come up with a more acceptable Social Register, one that will be verified, validated. It will also be expanded to include those who should be there while taking off those who no longer belong within that bracket. We will also work with all tiers of government as well as various communities to identify persons eligible for the scheme,” she said.
Meanwhile, Edu has assured that challenges faced by N-Power beneficiaries in terms of delay in payment of their stipends would soon be addressed as plans were underway to rejig the N-Power scheme to accommodate more people and ensure prompt payment of beneficiaries’ stipends.
“We will change the modalities so that people will get their delayed stipends, include more people, and relaunch it with a renewed hope concept,” she said.
She also said the ministry planned to establish humanitarian hubs across the 774 local government areas in the country, adding that would be a long-term goal towards eradicating poverty in Nigeria.
She explained that the hubs would accommodate homegrown commodities, which would be sold at cheaper rates to Nigerians.
The statement also said the ministry would send its staff to all the local government areas to get feedback in addition to engaging in digital tracking of the palliatives.
According to the statement, the digital tracking of the palliatives is aimed at determining the time, location, household, and individuals they are delivered to.
”This is to ensure transparent and effective disbursement of palliatives; we also plan to bring on board independent monitors to ensure the relief materials reach those in need.
“Under my watch, the ministry will address poverty through Job creation, cash transfer to poor Nigerians.
”We will ensure engagement with the Nutrition Department, the establishment of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise and provision of stimulus to their Business”.
She assured Nigerians of her commitment to curtail the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria through a prompt response.
“Nigerians should be rest assured that all existing empowerment schemes within the National Investment Programme will be rejigged to cover more people effectively.
Edu assured citizens of President Bola Tinubu’s huge economic interventions to meet their short and long term needs.
“Mr President has a huge economic plans for Nigeria; some with short term goals while some with long term goals and Nigerians should please trust the process”
