Over the weekend, Laolu Akande, the senior special assistant to the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, revealed in a statement that beneficiaries of the N5000 monthly stipend will get it directly in their accounts without a second or third party interference, adding that the payment would commence once the budget is approved by the National Assembly.
He also disclosed further that the one meal per day promise to school pupils in some selected states would also commence after the approval by the National Assembly, as part of its N500 billion social welfare programme.
The statement allso revealed further that N60 billion would be directly transferred to the one million extremely poor Nigerians in accordance to President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of building human capital.
Other elements of the social intervention scheme revealed by the VP’s aide yesterday, include the 500,000 direct jobs, which will see unemployed graduates being trained and deployed as volunteer teachers in their communities while still prospecting for jobs in their chosen professions.
The details as released by Mr. Adeolu Akande, also disclosed a youth employment plan which will see the training of 370,000 non-graduates youths in different skills and vocational programmes.
The statement read:
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“The recruitment of beneficiaries into the volunteer teaching jobs and the skill acquisition training scheme for non-graduates would be done on state basis, including the FCT and opened to all Nigerians of different shades.”
In the same vein, a micro credit scheme where one million Nigerians, mostly small scale traders, artisans and market women, would get a one-time soft loan of N60,000 each through the Bank of Industry, is being introduced as well as the free education plan for students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM, where government will pay tuition for 100,000 students.
Akande disclosed further that at no time in the nation’s budgetary history had the federal government made a specific vote of such volume for social welfare, adding:
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“Even economic historians now say that not only is the half a trillion Naira vote unprecedented, but it is also the greatest service ever done to the Nigerian state and people by any federal government administration.”
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“The President’s vision is to increase investments in human capital to guarantee security for all, employment and improved well-being of the people.”
His statement also indicated that monthly stipend policy, otherwise called the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) would be paid directly to the beneficiaries through a payment system that is being worked out.
The World Bank and the Bill Gates Foundation were reportedly collaborating with the presidency to develop an efficient payment system