Nigerian govt gives deadline to lift 100m Nigerians out of poverty

The Federal Government has reiterated its promise to lift at least 100 million Nigerians, out of the estimated 200 million of Nigeria’s population out of poverty by creating an enabling environment for small businesses to thrive by 2020.

According to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna, in a tweet posted on the ministry’s handle on Monday, there have been directives from the president to lift 100 million Nigerians out of extreme poverty.

The tweet said: “President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that we must pull 100m Nigerians out of poverty and that is our major focus”.

She reportedly made the statement in an interview with the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) which was later published on the social media handle.

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“In 2020, we want to move very fast because we realized that going at the steady rate we are doing is not going to make the kind of change that the president has directed to happen. The president has directed that we must pull 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and for all of us ministers, that is our major focus, Shamsuna noted.

“So, we have to make sure that we are creating more jobs and reducing unemployment, and pulling as many Nigerians as possible out of poverty. And that is the reason why when we did the finance bill, you will find that the bill was largely targeted at making businesses easy for the small and the very small businesses. This is because we believe that is where the economy needs to really grow and stabilize from.”

The president had also made the statement in August 2019, during a two-day retreat for minister-designates in Abuja.

“We are working to lift Nigerians out of poverty and set them on the path to prosperity. We intend to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years”, Muhammadu Buhari said.

By Oluwakemi Adelagun…

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