Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
No fewer than 4,000 women from the rural areas across the 23 local government areas of Kaduna State are to benefit from the federal government’s grant under its National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs Sadiya Umar Farouq, said this at the inauguration of the Rural Women Cash Grant programme on Wednesday in Kaduna.
She said that the gesture would help to give a helping hand to some of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in the country as a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to collectively address some developmental challenges Nigeria is grappling with.
The Minister, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Bashir Alkali, said that NSIP had been adjudged as the largest social protection programme in Africa with over $1 billion earmarked annually to cause positive changes in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in the country.
She said that the present administration was committed to reducing the plights of the poor and vulnerable citizens in the country despite the economic slump and revenue challenges.
The minister said that since the introduction of the programme in 2016, it had impacted positively on the lives of the poor and the vulnerable in the country as no fewer than 12 million households had benefitted from NSIP interventions.
“This included the payment of a monthly Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of N5,000 to one million indigent Nigerians to protect them against economic shocks and remove them out of poverty.
“Also, 1,092,405 micro and small business owners accessed loans to boost productivity, increase income and reduce poverty under the Government Enterprise Enhancement Programme (GEEP),” she said.
The minister also explained that the grant for rural women programme was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of President Buhari-led administration.
“It is consistent with the President’s new national vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
“It is also designed to provide a one-off grant to some of the poorest and most vulnerable women in rural and peri-urban areas of the country.
“Cash grant of N20,000 will be disbursed to about 125,000 poor women across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.”
The minister also said that the grant would increase income and productive assets of target beneficiaries.
“It is our hope that the beneficiaries of this programme will make good use of the grant to generally contribute toward improving their living standards,” she said.
According to her, with the creation of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in 2019, the programmes are being restructured and revamped to respond to the peculiarities of different parts of the country, to ensure the right beneficiaries are targeted, and to enhance the impact on target beneficiaries.
