FG disburses N24bn yearly in Sokoto to reduce poverty — Minister

Federal Government says it’s spending about N24 billion on different empowerment and poverty reduction schemes in its National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) in Sokoto state.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouk, disclosed this while inaugurating the disbursement of Cash Grant to Vulnerable Groups (GVG) on Tuesday in Sokoto.

Farouk, represented by the National Coordinator of NSIP, Dr Umar Bindir, said the figures were being expended on different categories of empowerments targeted at enhancing the livelihoods of Nigerians.

She explained that the supporting schemes comprised Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer, N-power and now GVG and others.

According to her, Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammad Buhari, designed effective schemes to give a lifting hand to some of our poorest and vulnerable citizens in our country.

” Programmes were being implemented in close partnerships with the State Governments and the effort is a clear demonstration of our collective commitment to address poverty which is the core developmental challenge confronting us as a people.

She said on the inception of President Buhari’s Administration in 2015, it inherited a National Poverty Incidence level averaging 70 per cent, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

She said since then, the Federal Government had paid more attention to generating solutions to address the plight of the poor and vulnerable in the country.

” Despite other economic challenges the Administration inherited at the time, this informed the decision to initiate the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in 2015.

” This as a strategy for poverty reduction and enhancing social inclusion among our people, especially the women in rural areas, ” the minister said.

The minister added that since the commencement of NSIP in 2016, it had impacted positively on many lives of the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria.

”I have personally witnessed the life-changing experiences of people who, hitherto, lived below the poverty line and those that are vulnerable to shocks but are now living better lives.

”It is consistent with President Buhari’s deliberate National agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years. ”

She noted that GVG was designed to provide a one-off grant, a cash grant of N20,000 to some of the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians in rural and semi-urban areas across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory,

Farouk added that there were no fewer than 5,815 GVG beneficiaries from the 23 local government areas of Sokoto state.

She stressed that the figure was the highest slot in the country because statistics showed that the highest poverty incidence was actually in the state.