Ahead of the commencement of the Buhari administration’s unprecedented infusion of half a trillion naira in social investment towards achieving a comprehensive safety net for poor and ordinary Nigerians, significant local and international support for the scheme is growing.
According to a federal government source, three banks, Stanbic, Access, and , have offered to do BVN registration for recipients of the conditional cash transfer scheme free of charge.
The scheme is meant to pay N5,000 monthly to one million poor and vulnerable Nigerians, with N$68.7 billion allocated to this in the 2016 budget.
The source also disclosed that nine states of the federation had also indicated active interest in working with the federal government on the Homegrown School Feeding where about 5.5million primary school pupils all across the country would be served one meal a day for about 200 days in every school year.
He further explained that some of the states that had already reached out to the federal government to actively support the school feeding scheme are Enugu, Abia, Kaduna, Borno, Oyo, Osun and Ogun.
In some of those states, the presidential aides coordinating the programme are already establishing structures and building capacities to implement the scheme.
The source said, “State governments have generally expressed support, but these states mentioned above have become the most active in ensuring the Buhari administration’s free feeding scheme takes off soon, smoothly and possibly earlier in their states.
“In Kaduna and Osun, actual feeding has commenced while it is expected to take off between next month – June and July – in Enugu, Oyo, Ogun and Borno.
The sources noted that the federal government plans to spend an average of N70 per meal for this programme, adding that the scheme had also received the support of the Imperial College, UK, whose PCD arm has sent expert staff to support the government.
Leadership: https://www.leadership.ng/news/531938/n500bn-social-investment-scheme-fg-world-bank-fine-tune-recipients-list
