The Special Adviser to the President on Social Protection, Mrs. Maryam Uwais says over 67 per cent of Nigerians were living below poverty line before the advent of the current administration. She stated this on Thursday in Abuja, during a social protection Practitioners and Academics Dialogue. She identified the major challenges confronting Nigeria as poverty, unemployment, insecurity and gender inequality among others.
The Adviser however disclosed that the current administration had made concerted efforts toward addressing the issue of poverty. She said the Federal Government has designed a four-point National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP), including Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT).
“This involves the direct transfer of N5,000 to the targeted poor and vulnerable households. The Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) assist vulnerable families, feed their classes, primary 1-3 school children one nutritious meal a day and provides an incentive to send them to school which is targeted to feed 5.5 million children.
The N-Power Programme is designed to put 500,000 young Nigerian graduates on employment and empower or train 100,000 of non-graduates with necessary tools to create, develop and build projects that will change our communities, economy and nation.
There is also Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which is targeted financial inclusion and empowerment loans programme to deliver maximum impact to the economically under- represented groups that targets about 1.6 million beneficiaries."
She appealed to stakeholders to partner with the initiative to assist the government effectively address social challenges in the country.
