From Maiharaji Altine, Gusau
The Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq has commended the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in fighting poverty through the National Social Investment Program (NSIP).
The Minister made the commendation in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital during a working visit to the state.
Hajiya Sadiya said in 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari recognizing the social challenges in the Country decided to innovatively take proactive and decisive measures in fighting the effects of absolute poverty and its attending consequences.
The Minister said, “As a result of due consultations and research, President Buhari has launched the implementation of the National Social Investment Program (NSIP) which is made up of four unique clusters that are integrated to provide the maximum impact”.
According to the Minister, the NSIP is strategically designed to fully involve all stakeholders most especially the State Governments.
She enumirated the four clusters on the NSIP as the NPower, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), National Home Grown School Feeding Program (NHGSFP) and the Government Enterprise and Government Enterprise and Empowerment programs (GEEP).
The NPower according to the Minister is aimed at building capacity, skills and competences that can unleash the generation of jobs especially among the youth.
“The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) that is aimed at reducing the vulnerability of poor homes by providing monthly cash transfers of N5,000 and ensuring social inclusivity through deliberate humanitarian activities”.
“The National Home-Grown School Feeding program (NHGSFP) was designed as a multi-faceted intervention to drive school enrollment up, boost nutrition of the pupils, support local production of food and encourage employment and income generation”.
She maintained that, the feeding program was aimed at the provision of one nutritious meal to all pupils in public primary schools in classes 1 to 3 to achieve these objectives.
“The GEEP which is aimed at advancing micro soft loans with no requirement of collateral or any interest charges”.
Sadiya said that all these were deliberately designed to specifically target section of vulnerable Nigerians that include youths, elderly persons, widows, poorest of the poor, children, and micro business persons.
“Effectively, the total impact of these special intervention affects millions of Nigerians with indices on the reduction of hunger and malnutrition, generating employment and creation of wealth”. Said the Minister.
She stressed that based on the approval of Mr President, the anchor of these programmes in the State is the Focal Person appointed by His Excellency the Governor who provides the direct link with both the Ministry and the State Government through the Office of the Secretary of the State Government.
The Focal Person according to her is expected to enhance the understanding of the different packages under the NSIP and to ensure that the beneficiaries are well targeted and affected.
“So, Today, we are here in Zamfara State on the strength of our partnership and mutual recognition of the need to do more on the NHGSFP, to bring more Nigerians under the umbrella of the Government’s social protection mechanism, to look at scaling up the numbers of the pupils benefiting from the Program as directed by His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari”.
“Over nine million pupils benefit from 1 free nutritious meal a day during school term nationwide, and now we have the mandate to reach an additional five million pupils by 2023”.
“With over 100,000 cooks employed, and more than 100,000 small holder farmers participating in this value chain, the NHGSFP is a serious potential for socio-economic development and it needs to be strengthened, scaled up and sustained nationwide”.
“I am therefore pleased that the Zamfara State and Federal NHGSFP teams as well as key stakeholders such as the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Education, National Orientation Agency, National Population Commission, National Youth Service Corp, UBEC and State Education boards are working jointly and closely to verify the existing numbers of beneficiaries on the program and update the records for better effectiveness, transparency and accountability”.
“To this end, while thanking the Zamfara State Government for its commitment in implementing the NHGSFP, I also wish to encourage us all to do more to ensure more children benefit from this program”. Concluded the Minister.
