TheCable

The federal government of Nigeria has increased the number of beneficiaries of the N-Power programme from 500,000 to 1,000,000.

Sadiya Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disclosed this on Monday during a ministerial press briefing.

While speaking on the ministry’s achievements since its creation in August 2019, she said President Muhammadu Buhari has ‘graciously approved’ the expansion of all NSIP programmes.

Farouq said the increase is in line with the president’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next ten years.

“The purpose of this gathering is to acquaint the Nigerian general public with the activities and programmes of the ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development since inception. There is no better time that validates the creation of the ministry as now,” she said.

“The ministry has at these times of emergencies and national need, relentlessly led efforts in the implementation of a series of coordinated interventions targeted specifically to ease the burden of vulnerable socio-economic segments of the country, before, and during COVID-19 lockdown.

“In order to double the scope of the national social investment programmes, Mr President has graciously approved the expansion of all NSIP programmes, such as the increase of N-Power beneficiaries from 500,000 to 1,000,000, an increase of GEEP beneficiaries by 1,000,000 and increase of beneficiaries of homegrown school feeding by 5,000,000.”

The minister also said deliberate efforts have been made to capture vulnerable groups including women and people with special needs, adding that the ministry has over 1,000,000 urban poor in the national social register.

“About 3.7 million households comprising more than 15.5 million individuals have been captured on the national social register. Of that number, over 2.8 million of the households which comprise 13.5 million individuals are eligible for conditional cash transfer,” she said.

“In line with Mr president’s directive to expand the national social register, we have developed a strategy for targeting the urban poor. This register will use existing databases from the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the bank verification number (BVN) from the Nigeria inter-bank settlement system (NIBSS).”