N-power, others gulped N109 billion in one year - Presidency reveals

macfranc007 February 04, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Tunde Ososanya

- The social investment programmes of the federal government were said to have gulped N109 billion

- The presidency revealed this through a statement by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo's spokesman, Laolu Akande

- Akande said that the N-power job scheme alone gulped N69,731,256,122

The presidency revealed on Saturday, February 3, that it spent a total of N109 billion on its social investment programmes between October 2016 and and November 2017.

This was contained in a statement by the senior special assistant to the vice president on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, who said that the fund was from the N110 billion released., Daily Trust reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Akande stated that N500 billion was appropriated for the programme in 2016; and N400 billion in 2017.

According to the vice president's spokesman, within the period under review, the N-power job scheme alone gulped N69,731,256,122; the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme, N11,700,200,466; the Conditional Cash Transfer, N5,235,401,087 and the Home-grown School Feeding Programme, N22,370,719,017.

Akande said: “Over 246 million (246,355,190) meals have been served to date to primary pupils across 20 states in the country, since the first meal served in December 2016, under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). The total figure is expected to reach 313,928,420 meals by the last week of February 2018.

“Also, the School Feeding Programme now feeds 6,044,625 pupils in 33,981 public primary schools across 20 states. More states are expected to be added to the programme this year. The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in a total of 28 states, while it aims to link farmers to school feeding markets.

“In the same vein, several milestones were recorded by the Buhari administration’s National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) in 2017, in line with its inclusive growth plan, which includes tackling poverty and hunger, and creating jobs for Nigerians. About 40,000 direct jobs have since been created from the School Feeding Programme across the participating states. The 20 states that have so far been covered by the NHGSFP include Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, and Kano.

“Also, in 2017, the school feeding programme collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states nationwide.

“Meanwhile, the school feeding programme now has a social media-based quality assurance tracking system, #TrackWithUs, ensuring that required standards for menu for pupils and meal distribution are adhered to across the states in a transparent manner.

“Similarly, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) has so far recorded over 280,000 beneficiaries in 21 states, while about 300,000 Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) micro-credit, interest-free loans have been disbursed nationwide.

“In the same vein, in 2017, the N-power scheme, which is targeted at providing jobs for unemployed young graduates, started its physical verification process for the 2017 applicants. In 2018, more beneficiaries are expected to be added to about 200,000 young graduates currently employed under the scheme.”

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news

In a related development, NAIJ.com previously reported that the federal government disclosed that a total of 176,160 graduate beneficiaries were deployed under its Social Investment Programme, N-Power.

This figure was contained in a book entitled Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity: A Mid-Term Report Card on the Buhari Administration, co-authored by the presidential media team.

It was learnt that the book was expected to be presented by All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Tinubu, on November 16 2017.

List President Buhari's achievements in two years - on NAIJ.com TV