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From Idu Jude Abuja
Director General of National Orientation Agency NOA, Dr. Garba Abari, has alleged that efforts to sensitize millions of Nigerians on government key policies and programmes such as the forthcoming election, the naira swap policy and the National population census, has been hampered by paucity of funds to carry out the job.
Abari, made the revelation Monday in Abuja during a media parley to present the activities of the agency and intervention programme.
The DG, said that his leadership has carried enlightenment campaign to all the 774 local government areas of the country with little available funds within it’s reach and to ensure that Nigerians at all levels should be able to key in and excercise their civic responsibilities.
Dr. Abari, said, “making sure that about 200 million Nigerians at the 774 local government areas are well sensitized became worrisome with little available funds to do the job. Iam also worried that even the social media was awash of the little enlightenment campaign being done by the NOA. It is also necessary to inform you people that collaborating with all the media organisations to help in this job has been difficult government media inclusive. I dare to say that it have not been like this way because before now, we used to have this kind of of straightjackated news channel. But nowadays, we have multifaceted ways of news flow with many media organisations which means working with all of them means huge amount of money which we cannot afforded”.
Against the backdrop, Dr. Abari, further revealed that the aim of the media parley is to present the report of it’s sensitization efforts at the community level, especially as it pertains to the forthcoming General Election, the planned National Housing and Population Census and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on the redesign of the Naira.
“Despite this financial predicament, these three issues are, presently, the dominant programmes of government that have far reaching implications for our political, economic and social development as a nation”.
Speaking on the naira swap policy, he said that the CBN’s programme, over a period of three months, targeted cash holders, especially those with the three currency denominations, who are expected to pay them into the their bank accounts. He also said that the three-month period was to enable folks at the grassroots to make arrangements to lodge their cash into the bank from where they can still do electronic transactions.
” The redesign policy comes with a plan by CBN to encourage less cash transactions and promote a cashless system in line with international best practices.
The CBN hopes to achieve the following objectives, including strengthening the economy as the naira redesign has since been overdue which usually is 5-8 years and this will bring the following intended benefits. Also to Discourage massive cash system where about 3 trillion naira are said to be outside the banking system. To reduced inflation against foreign currencies. Curb Corruption and ease the tracing of questionable transactions
Check counterfeiting and block possibility of demanding for huge sums for ransom and other illicit transactions. Strengthen the Economy and enhance CBN visibility on money supply. Others are to reduce expenditure on cash management and to Promote financial inclusion.
Abari while empathizing with Nigerians, said that while the CBN continue to grapple with the challenges of the implementation of the policy, it urge political players to give the policy a chance to work. Stating that the intention of government in approving the policy is noble and require the support of all citizens to achieve the desired goal”.
On the forthcoming National Population Census, he said, “In the last four months, we have been working with the National Population Commission (NPC) on the successful conduct of the proposed 2023 census. Our partnership is built on the need for grassroots mobilisation and awareness creation”.
Abari, informed that the objective of the first phase of the collaboration is to strengthen institutional capacity of both the NOA and the Commission to synergise, understand communication landscape and delivery channels for a huge exercise such as the population census.
He said that the collaboration also seeks to entrench citizen’s buy in to enable them to take ownership of the exercise.
In order to create awareness, community orientation and mobilisation officers of the NOA in the 774 alongside the NPC local government controllers jointly designed awareness creation activities for the forthcoming census.
The NOA DG, however, observed that many young Nigerians are desirous of more information about the census having not experienced any since their birth. The last census was conducted 16 years ago.
According to him, many wants to know the exact period of the exercise, while some Nigeria has preconceived notion about the concept census.
