Again, Nigerian govt promises to lift 50m citizens out of poverty

The Nigerian govt, on Friday, again promised to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty, following in the same fashion of such promises by the former administration of ex-president Muhammadu Buhari.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu made the promise in Abeokuta while speaking to journalists after visiting Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, adding that the Federal Government was committed to doing this in the next 42 months.

Ripples Nigeria reports that about 132 million Nigerians are in multidimensional poverty, according to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which made the then Buhari administration to severally promise lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

Edu also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu was concerned with the flooding in some parts of Ogun and Lagos states, adding her visit is to give humanitarian support to the victims of the disaster to mitigate their losses and discomfort.

The minister said: “My mission to Ogun State is simple. President Bola Tinubu is deeply touched by the flooding situation in some parts of Ogun and Lagos States and we are here to provide humanitarian support.

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“I have the pictures and some videos. We shall be there on Saturday to take stock of the number of people affected and see how they could be supported. We came with a lot of relief materials that we shall hand over to them.

“The second purpose of my visit is to ensure that we have Ogun State social registers which fit into the national social register so that the residents here too can begin to receive the N25,000 conditional cash transfer that some other states have been enjoying.

“The governors set up an inter-ministerial team that has been working to do in-person verification of beneficiaries of this conditional cash transfer programme and they have been working with the national team to vet these registers, ensure that they have their BVN, their NIN and be sure that their houses have been verified too so that these people can also start benefitting from this lofty programme.”

“We have also carefully mapped out some programmes designed specifically for Ogun State like the ‘adire’ scheme which is to support men and women in the production of adire and even link them up to markets where they can sell their products. This is part of our plans to lift people out of poverty.

“We have the traders moni, farmers moni and head hunger programmes too. Beyond all of these, we also want to support the vulnerable with grants that can help them set up businesses that could impact positively on their livelihood.

“All of these are targeted towards achieving the President’s directive of lifting 50 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 42 months while by 2030, everyone is out of poverty in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.”

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