Who FG Epp? Only 5% Of N500bn Social Intervention Funds Released – Reps

Three months to the end of the fiscal year, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Poverty Aleviation, Mohammed Ali Wudil, said the Federal Government has only released N20bn or about five per cent of the N500bn budgeted as social intervention programme in 2016.The lawmaker spoke yesterday at a Civil Society Organisation, CSO’s engagement on monitoringFederal Government’s Social Protection and Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.According to him, lawmakers are engaging the executives to speed up actions on the programme to ensure that citizens, who are supposed to benefit from it are not left to continue to suffer.He expressed concern that the year would wind down in about four months without achieving any meaningful impact on the lives of the poor.Wudil said over eight million Nigerians were expected to benefit from the N500bn social intervention, adding that apart from the social intervention, jobs would also be created by infrastructural projects that would be restored and the new ones that would soon be taking off.“The huge budget of N500bn remained idle amid increasing socio-economic pressures on the would-be beneficiaries.“Definitely, the office of the Special Adviser, Social Investments in the Presidency is facing challenges rolling out plans for the implementation.“The huge amount that was allocated to the office needs to be justified, particularly now that poverty has gone so high in the country,” he said.In her presentation, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on SocialInvestment, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, who outlined different Special Intervention Projects of the Federal Government, said it is designed for delivery under fivesections.These include the N-power, designed to help young Nigerians acquire and develop life-long skills to become solution providers in their communities and to become players in the domestic and global markets.There is home grown school feeding for primary school children through locally sourced foods within the country; direct cash transfer of N5,000 monthly to targeted poor and vulnerable households, targeting one million people.She also listed enterprises and empowerment program, involving financial inclusion and access to credit for market women, artisans, youths and farmers as well as STEM bursary program.Also, Head Partnership and Local RightsProgram, ActionAid, Suwaiba Jubrin, said the civil society is engaging the government to ensure that the program implementation is actualised. She observed that it was laudable for the present administration to invite the CSOs to participate in holding the government accountable for the project via monitoring and evaluations.She lamented economic growth over theyears in the country which has been bedeviled by inequality, increasing poverty and rising unemployment.“Nigeria’s capacity to generate revenue to support pro-poor development has remained extremely limited,” she said.