The Presidency said it is collaborating with relevantstakeholders, to draft an anti-poverty bill that would be forwarded to the National Assembly, for passage into law.
The bill is expected to address issues related to poverty alleviation in the country.
Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programme, Maryam Uwais, disclosed this during an oversight visit by the joint National Assembly committee on Poverty Alleviation.
Mrs. Uwais told the panel jointly chaired by Senator Lawal Yahaya Gumau and Muhammad Ali Wudil, that the bill would dwell on how to sustain the achievements made so far.
She further explained that the bill would dwell on how to sustain the achievements made so far.
“We feel that we should have a very good team and the same kind of structure with the steering committee. We want to also ask for the states to come up with the same kind of structure. What we need to do is to make it attractive; for the states to key into.
“We have come up with a draft bill that we are working on, in-house, before we come and engage the two chairmen. There are a lot of options that we are looking at, but we want to look at it first at the executive level before coming to you so that we can sustain the achievements,” she said.
She also told the joint committee that the Federal Government currently has over 700,000 beneficiaries under its Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which includes Tradermoni, Farmermoni, and Marketmoni but that they send money to only about 300,000.
“Right now, we’re in 30 states in the school feeding programme. We’re in about 56,000 schools around the country and we have received assistance from donors such as the World Bank…Tradermoni was created specifically for petty traders and artisans across Nigeria.
“With Tradermoni, you can receive interest-free loan starting from N10,000 and growing all the way to N100,000 as you pay back,’’ she said.
On the challenges in the delivery of social benefits, Mrs Uwais said adequate funding remained a major setback.
“We don’t get our full funding. Only about 25 per cent of our funds have been released, so we have to find ways and means to be cost effective about our spending,’’ she said.
In his response, Wudil advised the presidency on how to present the bill to lawmakers.
“When you talked about having a bill on poverty alleviation commission or whatever, I think you should look at it very well. But, it can also come through a private member bill. If it’s an executive bill, there’s no problem.”
On funding from the World bank, he said: “Your presentation was wonderful, but we need to have these kind of updates, maybe after every three months because we represent our people.
“Information is critical, and this is one of the best programmes in this government…”