As part of its determined efforts to touch the
lives of Nigerians positively the Buhari administration has now started the payment of N5, 000 monthly stipends to the poorest and the
most vulnerable in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of
its Social Investment Programmes, SIP.
Under
the CCT, one million Nigerians would receive N5000 monthly payments as a form
of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as budgeted for in the
2016 Budget. In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states would be
covered, and many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their
first payments by Friday last week, December 30, 2016.
Funds
for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to
the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and
validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds
for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would
follow soon.
Though
the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by
NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving
the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are
Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti States.
The
nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing Social Register
that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through
a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT) method working with the
World Bank. However other states have already begun developing their Social
Registers and would be included in subsequent phases of the CCT implementation.
Beneficiaries
of the Conditional Cash Transfer of the Federal Government would be mined from
the Social Register, initially developed by 8 States through a direct
engagement with the World Bank. Those states are featured in the first batch,
with the added inclusion of Borno States where a validated list of IDPS were
compiled in addition to the Social Register which is expected to go round the
country.
Working
with the World Bank, the CBT process has now been adopted for developing the
Social Register in the other States around the country, for transparency,
objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest and most vulnerable
beneficiaries for the programme.
The
Federal Government will actually commence community mobilization for the
creation of the Register in more States soon, to expand the scope and reach of
the CCT across the country.
Meanwhile,
Plateau, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Katsina & Taraba
States have so far complied with the stipulated framework provided, and are set
for the community based targeting method for the development of their Social
Register within their jurisdictions.
These
States are to be followed by Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Imo and Ogun States.
Once the community mobilization, identification and selection processes are
completed, the information garnered from the poorest households would be
entered onto the Social Register in the states and the National Register at
NIBSS, after which the cash transfers would be disbursed to the beneficiaries.
All
the funds approved for the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes,
SIP, are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. In
addition, the payment information and processes for all beneficiaries of the
Federal Government’s SIP are hosted at NIBSS, as the Consolidated Beneficiary
Register, to ensure and fortify efforts at authentication and verification, as
well as for effective and efficient programme management.
With
the commencement of the CCT, the Buhari administration is now implementing four
of the Federal Government's SIP.
Besides
the CCT, the N-Power Volunteer Corps designed to hire half a million unemployed
graduates which has now engaged 200,000, and the National Homegrown School
Feeding Programme now running in three states, the Buhari administration
has also kicked-off the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme,
(GEEP).
Under
GEEP, soft loans ranging from N10,000 to 100,000 have been designed for artisans,
traders, market women among others.
Already,
thousands of cooperatives, market women associations, farmers and enterprising
youths, have been identified and registered for the purpose, on an ongoing
basis, and the disbursement of the soft loans through the Bank of Industry have
started since Nov 25, 2016.
At
the last count, for the first phase, beneficiaries have been drawn from the
Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Imo, Kwara, Kano,
Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Kogi States.
However,
disbursements were halted and deferred until after the festive season. Vetting
and approval of beneficiaries are now being continued through the month, with
the expectation and plan that by month-end disbursements would have been made
to 33,000 beneficiaries.
Regarding
the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, close to 50% of the
graduates, have now been physically verified, and started receiving their
monthly stipends of N30,000 last week. A second batch of 300,000 unemployed
graduates are expected to be selected early this year to make up the half a
million target set by the Buhari administration.
The
verified graduates are now being deployed to work as assistant teachers in
schools, as community health aides and as agricultural extension workers, in
more than 20 States of the Federation. These States include; Abia, Adamawa,
Bauchi, Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers, Borno, Gombe, Edo, Jigawa, Katsina,
Plateau, Kogi, Osun, Rivers, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto, Ogun and Taraba.
Government
has also started the implementation of the National Home-grown School Feeding
programme designed to feed 5.5 million school children for 200 school days in
the first phase of the programme. Although the initial design was to feed
pupils in 18 States, funding challenges had affected an earlier take-off. But
the programme has now commenced in Osun, Kaduna and Anambra States. More states
are expected to join this new year.
In
the new year, it is the plan of the Federal Government to scale up the implementation
of the SIP to touch the lives of millions of Nigerians in fulfillment of it’s
promises and in furtherance of its Change agenda.
Tags
Business