President Bola Tinubu yesterday flagged-off the Renewed Hope conditional cash transfer programme intended to deliver financial intervention to 15 million households in the country and to mark the commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
About 62 million Nigerians are expected to benefit from the programme which is geared towards poverty eradication.
Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, had in November last year, announced that about 133 million Nigerians were multidimensional poor.
Speaking on the occasion at the presidential villa, Abuja, the President, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, said the occasion was significant for Nigeria and for his administration as it presented him the opportunity to restate his administration’s commitment to poverty alleviation as expressed in his 8-point Agenda.
While noting that his government’s plans for food security, ending hunger, poverty eradication, economic growth and job creation were all means to fight poverty and help the most vulnerable members of the society, Tinubu outlined the steps government had already taken.
These, he said, included restructuring of the ministry of humanitarian affairs to include poverty alleviation and providing the policy framework for an aggressive poverty alleviation drive in Nigeria.
Others are developing the Renewed Hope Agenda for humanitarian response and poverty alleviation, and expanding the national social register to capture Nigerians living below one dollar per day.
He also listed the restructuring of the National Social Investment Programme and its repositioning for efficient delivery that is transparent and accountable, as well as partnering with the World Bank Group and other development partners to implement conditional cash transfers, business grants and other forms of support for the most vulnerable households as steps to fight poverty in the country.
On the theme of this year’s commemoration, “Decent Work and Social Protection: Putting dignity in practice for all,” Tinubu said it was no doubt in perfect alignment with the Renewed Hope agenda of his government.
“My government will lead from the front in seeking to ensure that all Nigerians have decent opportunities for dignified work and sustained social protection.
“Today (yesterday), my administration is launching the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer Program for vulnerable groups as an immediate intervention to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal and other economic shocks.
“However, the government is working to develop and deploy several more solutions and interventions to help Nigerians of all walks of life,” the President said.
Earlier in her address, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, warned that to ignore poverty alleviation in the country would amount to sitting the country on a keg of gunpowder.
She observed that the N75,000 already announced by the President for disbursement to vulnerable households in the country was enough to successfully run small scale businesses.
She stated: “Beyond this, the government will be providing low-cost shelter for the poor and internally displaced persons as a form of providing that cover for them.
”Several other interventions, including the rural vocational skills, will be carried out at mass scale. All of these are targeted at the various dimensions of poverty in the country.
“As a nation, we must come together to fight poverty. Poverty is that scourge, poverty is that hydra-headed cobra in the room that if not tackled, would consume everyone.
“Sitting and ignoring poverty at any level, will only seem or equate to sitting on a keg of gunpowder and that’s why today, the President is taking it headlong.“
Also speaking, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said the 63 per cent statistics of Nigerians living in poverty, representing 84 million Nigerians, was unacceptable to President Bola Tinubu
He said: “Clearly to Mr. President, it is totally unacceptable as it is to the rest of us. And that is why it is perhaps his number one priority, tackling poverty and he has a program to stabilize the economy and grow the economy in general.”
World Bank country representative, Shubham Chaudhuri, in his remarks, confirmed that cash transfers were a method widely acknowledged and universally accepted.
He stressed that the method had proven to be one of the most effective ways to provide assistance to citizens, particularly the impoverished and vulnerable who had been impacted by economic shocks or rising living costs.
“This aid is crucial in helping them overcome the initial period during which they might otherwise be compelled to make decisions with long-term consequences.
“For instance, these decisions might include reducing daily meals to just one or withdrawing their children from school.
”The type of cash transfer referred to as ‘shock-responsive cash transfer’ that is currently being implemented is utilized by countries worldwide to offer temporary relief in such situations,” Chaudhuri said.
