Buhari’s social investment programmes meeting needs of ordinary Nigerians

To say the Buhari administration’s National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) has benefited millions of Nigerians is stating the obvious. Across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, millions can testify to the impact of the Social Investment Programmes of this administration. It has not only provided needed welfare support to Nigerians but it […]

To say the Buhari administration’s National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) has benefited millions of Nigerians is stating the obvious. Across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, millions can testify to the impact of the Social Investment Programmes of this administration. It has not only provided needed welfare support to Nigerians but it has also created jobs and provided more opportunities for Nigerians in the formal and informal economy. Since it started in 2016, about N450 billion has been implemented, and the N-SIPs have impacted over 42 million Nigerians – that is, over 12 million direct beneficiaries and about 30 million indirect beneficiaries, comprising family members, employees of beneficiaries, cooks and farmers.

This is the more reason why some weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari commended the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, for his work in driving the N-SIP of this administration. The N-SIP has been described as arguably the largest social investment programme in sub-Saharan Africa and the largest social welfare scheme in the history of this country.

No doubt, this is a clear proof that the NSIP is working and the commitment and dedication of this administration to ensure that the welfare of ordinary Nigerians are taken care of is glaring for all to see, even for the critics, except they want to play the ostrich and ignore the millions of beneficiaries nationwide.

The President’s commendation shows the hard work and commitment the VP puts into ensuring the continued success of the N-SIPs, in line with the goals of the Buhari administration, which includes improving the welfare of the common man.

As Vice President Osinbajo did point out in the past, the Buhari administration remains committed to the welfare of the common man and this is one of the major reasons why the Social Investment Programmes was established.

“The welfare and well-being of all these Nigerians who work every day and render honest services every day is the true benchmark of our commitment as government to social justice and dignity of all Nigerians. We will continue to commit ourselves to the cause of improving the lot of every working Nigerian and providing for those who cannot work,” Osinbajo said.

The components of the administration’s Social Investment Programmes include the N-Power programme, the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which consists of the MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni schemes.

For instance, one of the cooks in the School Feeding Programme in Kano State, Saffiyya Mustapha Galadanci, had this to say recently: “May God uplift this government and protect it from evil doers. This job has helped our lives because I have 8 children, my husband is afflicted by Hepatitis B. Among these 8, 7 are girls and one is a boy, one of the children has completed her degree and 2 have finished their secondary education but cannot proceed due to lack of funding. Because of this job, I have now taken responsibility to put this two in higher education – Maryam and Batula, one is now in FCE Kano while the other is still in secondary school – I have nothing to say than to pray that God protects this government and that He makes us grateful people.”

Galadanci made this remark during the special programme held in Kano last week when thousands of NSIP beneficiaries in the state came out in large numbers at Murtala Mohammed Library to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo over their success at the 2019 polls.

Thanking President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo for the success of the programmes, the beneficiaries urged the Federal Government to sustain the schemes.

In Kano State alone, there are over one million school pupils in over 5,000 public primary schools currently being fed a free nutritious meal daily under the School Feeding Programme, while over 7,000 cooks are being engaged in the programme.

Also, in Kano State, the Conditional Cash Transfers initiative has 51,350 households as beneficiaries spread across a total of 1,651 communities in Kano, while over 180,000 traders are currently benefitting from the TraderMoni programme with plans to engage more people in the state.

It is stating the obvious that the N-SIPs have impacted the lives of Nigerians in all the 36 states of the federation. For instance, the N-Power job scheme, which currently employs 500,000 young Nigerian graduates and 20,000 non-graduates in different areas of public services – health, education, agriculture, building and IT – has volunteers deployed in all the 774 local government areas of the 36 states.

The Home-Grown School Feeding programme is now feeding over 9.5 million children in public schools in 31 states nationwide; while the GEEP loans, comprising MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni is providing micro-credit loans to over 2 million Nigerian petty traders, artisans and businessmen nationwide.

The CCT, which provides a monthly Cash Transfer of N5,000 to the poorest and most vulnerable households in the country, with the sole aim of taking them out of absolute poverty, has been able to reach over 400,000 in Nigeria.

It would be thus unfair to judge the impact of the Social investment Programmes of this administration over an isolated case in any state. For instance, the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, which the President’s wife, Aisha Buhari, recently spoke about, currently has almost 14,000 beneficiaries in Adamawa State, with 22,248 more having been enrolled, waiting for disbursements commencing in June 2019.

Adamawa State has also benefitted from the other components of the N-SIPs. For instance, the school feeding programme in the state has a total number 169,975 beneficiaries, with 167,873 school pupils being fed in over 1000 schools, with 2,102 cooks engaged in the state. Also, smallholder farmers in the state benefit, thus contributing to the local economy. In the same vein, about 40,000 traders are current beneficiaries of the GEEP TraderMoni, FarmerMoni and MarketMoni schemes in the state.

In general, the Social Investment Programmes continues to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians nationwide. This was succinctly captured by independent reports by Civil Society Organisations.

One of them, ActionAid Nigeria, acknowledged that the N-SIP “contributes in addressing the problems of out-of-school children and youth unemployment in Nigeria and knows the programmes are impacting on the lives of Nigerians albeit at different levels.

It further said, “We believe more Nigerians can be reached if the voted funds are released, because the intentions are good and commend the highly competent technical staff of the NSIO led by Mrs. Maryam Uwais for the job done so far. Based on our experience, the National Social Investment Office listens to feedback from the CSOs and many other stakeholders. That is why AAN is happy to be part of the process and encourage all Nigerians to take interest in how the programmes are being implemented in their locality.”

 

Mohammed, a public commentator, writes from Abuja, via [email protected]