Culled from Dailypost, read the full report below....
As the National Assembly begins debating the 2016 Budget submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, there are specific provisions in the proposals that will confront poverty in the country in a bold and direct way, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has stated.
“We are dealing with the issues of poverty with the 2016 Budget that is currently being debated,” the Vice President said, noting that “in a country where more than 110 million Nigerians are extremely poor, we are bound to have such health challenges, as having about 110,000 deaths yearly from Diarrhea.”
“All together there are 6 social protection programmes of the Buhari administration for which funds have been allocated in the 2016 budget. These are Teach Nigeria, where 500,000 graduates would be hired as teachers, Youth Employment and Empowerment-where between 300,000-500,000 youths would go through skills acquisition and vocational training, the Conditional Cash Transfer, where one million extremely poor Nigerians will receive N5000 monthly this year, Homegrown School Feeding where one meal a day would be served to public primary school children across the country, Free Education for tertiary education 100,000 students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the Micro-Credit Scheme that will give N60,000 one time soft loans to market women, and artisans”, he stated.
The Vice President spoke during a courtesy visit by a delegation of Reckitt Benckiser West Africa, a household care products’ company led by its West Africa Managing Director, Mr. Rahul Murgai and the Chairman in Nigeria, Chief Olu Falomo.
The company had earlier discussed with the VP its “Save the Children Initiative”, a Corporate Social Responsibility programme designed to curb the deaths of Nigerian children caused by Diarrhea.
While welcoming the initiative, Prof. Osinbajo explained that a lot had to be done in the country to confront poverty and its impacts on Nigerians.
According to him, “when you have the number of extremely poor Nigerians that we have in this country, we are bound to have these kinds of health problems”.
He added, however, that the 2016 Budget proposals will deal with the overall problem of poverty.
He said for the first time in the nation’s history, about half a trillion Naira was being provided for the six social investment programmes.
The Vice President commended the company for its intervention, saying “this is the sort of thing we expect from those who have the resources.”
“We are dealing with the issues of poverty with the 2016 Budget that is currently being debated,” the Vice President said, noting that “in a country where more than 110 million Nigerians are extremely poor, we are bound to have such health challenges, as having about 110,000 deaths yearly from Diarrhea.”
“All together there are 6 social protection programmes of the Buhari administration for which funds have been allocated in the 2016 budget. These are Teach Nigeria, where 500,000 graduates would be hired as teachers, Youth Employment and Empowerment-where between 300,000-500,000 youths would go through skills acquisition and vocational training, the Conditional Cash Transfer, where one million extremely poor Nigerians will receive N5000 monthly this year, Homegrown School Feeding where one meal a day would be served to public primary school children across the country, Free Education for tertiary education 100,000 students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the Micro-Credit Scheme that will give N60,000 one time soft loans to market women, and artisans”, he stated.
The Vice President spoke during a courtesy visit by a delegation of Reckitt Benckiser West Africa, a household care products’ company led by its West Africa Managing Director, Mr. Rahul Murgai and the Chairman in Nigeria, Chief Olu Falomo.
The company had earlier discussed with the VP its “Save the Children Initiative”, a Corporate Social Responsibility programme designed to curb the deaths of Nigerian children caused by Diarrhea.
While welcoming the initiative, Prof. Osinbajo explained that a lot had to be done in the country to confront poverty and its impacts on Nigerians.
According to him, “when you have the number of extremely poor Nigerians that we have in this country, we are bound to have these kinds of health problems”.
He added, however, that the 2016 Budget proposals will deal with the overall problem of poverty.
He said for the first time in the nation’s history, about half a trillion Naira was being provided for the six social investment programmes.
The Vice President commended the company for its intervention, saying “this is the sort of thing we expect from those who have the resources.”
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