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Osinbajo’s aide says Buhari’s social intervention package not one-off scheme

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9 years ago

January 4, 2016

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The social welfare intervention programme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, for which N500 billion has been allocated in the 2016 budget, is not a one-off scheme, says Mr. Laolu Akande, the vice presidential spokesman.

Akande, who is the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity in the Office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday.

He said the scheme “is a combination of several well-thought out programmes emphasising direct connections with the extremely poor, and the needy among other categories of the masses of this country’’.

A breakdown of the welfare programme is contained in the 2016- 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (PSP) submitted to the Senate for consideration and approval.

According to the document, the Federal Government will collaborate with state governments to institute well-structured social welfare intervention programmes such as: School feeding programme initiative, conditional cash transfer to the most vulnerable and post-National Youth Service Corps grant.

Under special intervention including cash transfer, home grown school feeding programme and micro credit loans (SMEs, market women etc), which is also covered by the social intervention programme, the government provided the sum of N300 billion for 2016, N339.05 for 2017, and N338.93 for 2018.

According to the spokesman, the plan of the Buhari presidency is comprehensive and has taken into consideration some of the factors that led to the failure of past poverty alleviation schemes.

“One of the major differences here is that the social intervention programme such as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) would be a direct transfer of N5000 monthly to the extremely poor among us.

“And this is a safety net that several advanced nations had put in place a long time in their history, and most often at times of economic challenges.”

The SSA said that the money would be paid directly to the people concerned on the condition of school enrolment and immunization.