Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said there are specific provisions in the 2016 budget proposals that would tackle poverty in the country.
A statement issued yesterday by Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo spoke during a courtesy visit by a delegation of Reckitt Benckiser West Africa led by its Chairman in Nigeria, Olu Falomo, and West Africa Managing Director, Rahul Murgai.
He noted that the present administration was dealing with the issue of poverty, stressing that in a country where more than 110 million Nigerians are extremely poor, there would be health challenges, including having about 110,000 deaths yearly from diarrhea.
According to him, there are six social protection programmes of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for which funds have been allocated in the 2016 budget.
Osinbajo said the programmes include Teach Nigeria, where 500,000 graduates would be employed as teachers; Youth Employment and Empowerment which would involve skills acquisition and vocational training for between 300,000-500,000 youths. According to him, another programme is the Conditional Cash Transfer, where one million extremely poor Nigerians would receive N5,000 monthly this year as well as Homegrown School Feeding where one meal a day would be served to public primary school children across the country,
While receiving the Reckitt Benckiser West Africa delegation, Osinbajo welcomed the Save The Children programme which the firm said was part of its corporate social responsibility designed to check the deaths of Nigerian children caused by diarrhea. Osinbajo explained that a lot has to be done in the country to confront poverty and its impact on Nigerians.
He, however, said the 2016 Budget proposals would deal with the overall problem of poverty. Osinbajo said for the first time in the nation’s history, about half a trillion naira was being provided for six social investment programmes. Earlier, Murgai said Reckitt Benckiser, which has been doing business in Nigeria for several decades, wants to ensure the people of Nigeria are healthier and happier. He said the company was worried about the diarrhea deaths and had set aside about N1.2 billion to fight the situation in Nigeria. Also yesterday, Osinbajo received a delegation from the Twelve-Twelve Polo and Turf Club, Abuja led by Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the Club’s Advisory Board Chairman.
While commending the efforts to set up such a club, Osinbajo urged the members to consider making polo, horse-racing and other equestrian sports open and available to young people who otherwise may not be able to afford playing in such expensive games.
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