As activities of the Buhari administration gradually come to a close, details of the achievements of its National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) – an initiative aimed at reducing poverty across Nigeria, are emerging.
Checks on the activities of the Steering Committee of NPRGS, chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, indicated that by adopting a different approach based on a common-sense strategy, the committee’s interventions have impacted millions of Nigerians across different sectors in less than a year of operations.
Confirming the development, the spokesman to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande in a media update stated noted that “almost 2 million vulnerable Nigerians have been impacted by various projects implemented by the NPRGS Committee for the year 2022 in agriculture, rural roads construction and skills and vocational training.”
Mr Akande recalled that Prof. Osinbajo had noted in a meeting with committee members that “how the Buhari administration plans to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years will not be based on a business-as-usual approach, but a very simple, common-sense strategy that will deliver the results as the President promised.”
He explained that it was the approach adopted by the Committee led by the VP that resulted in the significant progress made by it within a very short period of time.
Findings indeed show that about 1.6 million smallholder farmers were impacted under the Agriculture for Jobs Plan alone, while 13,000 youths have been trained under a Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme in 6 States comprising Lagos, Ogun, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna and Nasarawa, while arrangements are underway to provide similar training for 2000 beneficiaries in Edo State.
Equally, more than 8,000 Nigerians were employed in rural roads construction under the Rural Roads programme which built 40 rural roads in 120 communities, covering about 57.3 km across the country.
According to the NPRGS implementation monitoring update Akande released, “ some of the programmes that have achieved 100% completion for the 2022 cycle include: Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP),and Construction of Rural Roads, among others.
“A total number of direct beneficiaries of the implemented programmes currently stands at 1,818,782 vulnerable Nigerians and a total of 9,527 Nigerians have also been directly employed through the implementation of the programmes so far.”
Mr Akande said the “Committee at its last meeting of the administration recently approved the sum N250 billion for the execution of projects for this year running.”
Some of the projects scheduled for implementation under the NPRGS for the year 2023 include,
• The provision of 100,000 homes for low-income earners which will create 1 million jobs directly and indirectly.
• The expansion of energy access by providing 1,200 solar street lights in rural communities and 6 mini-grids for high-capacity productive farming under the Solar Naija Programme.
• Creation of 4.5 million direct and indirect jobs through the Rural Roads programme which targets to connect about 750 rural markets.
• Provision of N9 billion support for over 1.6 million vulnerable smallholder farmers for the 2023 wet season farming under the Agriculture for Jobs Plan.
• The expansion of the National Social Register with additional 3 million households.
It would be recalled that Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State who is also the Co-Chair of the Technical Working Group for the Committee had in a chat with State House Correspondents at the end of Committee’s last meeting in April expressed optimism that despite challenges and issues associated with transition of governments, efforts were underway to touch each of the targeted areas of implementation.
Members of the National Steering Committee of Nigeria’s National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy include Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief of Staff to Mr. President, Governor of Ekiti State (South West), Governor of Delta State (South South), Governor of Sokoto State (North West), Governor of Borno State (North East), Governor of Nasarawa State (North Central) and Governor of Ebonyi State (South East).
Other members of the committee are: Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Minister of Labour and Employment, Minister of Education and Minister of Health.
