The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has come out to highlight the importance of the Social Investment Programme which was established by the current regime led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Social Investment Programmes (SIPs), also referred to as the National Social Investment Programme was established by the Federal Government back in 2015 as a Social Welfare Initiative, under the leadership of the National Social Investment Office. At inception, it was said to be created for an equitable distribution of wealth and resources to all populations.
The NSIP has four different programmes under its umbrella, which are available to all Nigerian citizens. First is the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), whose aim is to provide targeted cash transfers to vulnerable families, holding a long term goal of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty. In this programme, a cash amount of N5,000 is given to households in poverty-stricken areas monthly, with an additional N5,000 given to those considered priorities or extreme cases.
The NSIP also houses the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), whose main aim is to provide financial support to the countries who are at the absolute bottom of the financial pyramid. This programme provides low-cost, micro-lending to over a million women, young entrepreneurs and farmers.
Also under the NSIP is the popular Npower programme, which aims to equip Nigerian youths with skills while also providing them with funds which would help them apply the skills they have learnt in their businesses. Lastly, the NSIP is home to the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSF) which was created in order to provide a balanced meal to more than 5.5 million schoolchildren. Another aim of the programme at inception was to reduce drop-out rate by encouraging enrolment.
Vice President Osinbajo described these programmes as a multi-pronged approach to wealth creation and poverty alleviation. This means that the programmes are looking at multiple angles from which they will help to improve the economic situation of Nigerians.
Osinbajo said that the CCT currently reaches 8.9 million households and 37.7 million individuals across the country. He then said that the GEEP has provided almost 3 million loans worth about N38 billion to traders and small entrepreneurs across the country.
If these programmes work the way the Federal Government intends it to, poverty levels in the country will record significant drops.
