There are indications that the list of beneficiaries of the Federal Government's N5,000 conditional cash transfer for eight states is ready.
Feelers from political and World Bank Country office in Nigeria have shown that the list for the
conditional transfer has been in the making. The
World Bank, it was learned, has used its template
that it applies globally to help the federal authorities
identify the poor and needy in the eight states while
work is said to be in progress in other states of the
federation.
The feelers suggest that the team compiling the list
in each state goes to two poorest local
governments in a state and then identify the two
poorest villages or communities in such state.
From the poorest community, a list is drawn. One
million poor Nigerians will benefit from the
programme. The feeler is that the compilation is in
collaboration with the World Bank, which had even
started compiling a Social Register before the
current administration came on board.
According to those, who have working knowledge of
the programme, eight states of the federation have
already been covered and that the criteria to
determine beneficiaries have been clearly spelt out.
They include: school enrolment by the parents of
school-age children; immunization of children
against child-killer diseases as well as the aged
and disabled poor. It was learned that the
programme would run throughout the period of the
administration’s life.
It was gathered that contrary to widely held opinions
in some quarters, the N5,000 monthly stipend
programme has not been cancelled by the Buhari
administration. The source clarified that while some
people held that the Federal Government was to pay
N5,000 monthly to graduates, the graduates’
scheme would be the recruitment of 500,000
volunteer teachers, who would be paid N30,000
monthly.
"The graduates’ volunteer programme would run for
two years, with the expectation that the volunteers
would be able to secure other jobs as the economy
throws up new opportunities," the source said.
In addition, he said that the administration’s Micro-
credit scheme for small businesses would act as a
game-changer in the Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs) subsector of the economy.
Under that scheme, a revolving loans fund would be
made available to Nigerian youths who wants to go
into small business as well as those already in
business, to enable them expand their operations.
Nigeria is one of the top five countries with the
largest number of poor, ranking third, with China
and India, ranking second and first respectively.
Majority of Nigeria’s desperately poor never had the
opportunity to attend a school, nor receive some
form of education, whether formal or informal. The
Buhari administration is keying into the World Bank
advice to nations last April.
It will be recalled that the World Bank President,
Jim Yong Kim, had said at last year’s IMF/World
Bank Spring Meetings that Nigeria is one of the top
five countries that has the largest number of poor.
Nigeria, he said ranked third in the world while India
ranked number one with 33 per cent of the world
poor. China is ranked second with 13 per cent of
the world’s poor, followed by Nigeria where seven
per cent of the world poor live in.
He said that Bangladesh has six per cent share of
the world’s poor while the Democratic Republic of
Congo has five per cent of the world’s poor
population. Jim Yong Kim said these five countries
are home to 760 million of the world’s poor, adding
that another five countries, Indonesia, Pakistan,
Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya would encompass
almost 80 per cent of the extreme poor.
World Bank had said that a sharp focus on these
will be central to ending poverty, the “while
economic growth remains vital for reducing poverty,
growth has its limits, according to a new World
Bank paper. Countries need to complement efforts
to enhance growth with policies that allocate more
resources to the extreme poor. These resources can
be distributed through the growth process itself, by
promoting more inclusive growth, or through
government programs, such as conditional and
direct cash transfers. Direct cash transfers “It is
imperative not just to lift people out of extreme
poverty; it is also important to make sure that, in
the long run, they do not get stuck just above the
extreme poverty line due to a lack of opportunities
that might impede progress toward better
livelihoods.
Economic growth has been vital for reducing
extreme poverty and improving the lives of many
poor people. Yet, even if all countries grow at the
same rates as over the past 20 years, and if the
income distribution remains unchanged, world
poverty will only fall by 10 percent by 2030, from
17.7 percent in 2010. This is simply not enough,
and we need a laser like focus on making growth
more inclusive and targeting more programmes to
assist the poor directly if we’re going to end
extreme poverty.” Kim added: “To end extreme
poverty, the vast numbers of the poorest – those
earning less than $1.25 a day – will have to
decrease by 50 million people each year until 2030.
This means that one million people each week will
have to lift themselves out of poverty for the next
16 years. This will be extraordinarily difficult, but I
believe we can do it. This can be the generation
that ends extreme poverty. “Growth alone is unlikely
to end extreme poverty by 2030 because as
extreme poverty declines, growth on its own tends
to lift fewer people out of poverty. This is because,
by this stage, many of the people still in extreme
poverty live in situations where improving their lives
is extremely difficult. Even if there is no change in
inequality, the “poverty-reducing power” of
economic growth is less in countries that are
initially more unequal.”
The transfer will go directly to the beneficiary. The
President it was gathered has instructed that there
should be no third party arrangement in the transfer
process. The technology to effect the payment is
being worked out.
President Muhammadu Buhari is said to be very
passionate about social investments by his
administration among the ordinary Nigerians who
were mainly responsible for his election and would
not do anything to jeopardize their confidence in
him.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/fgs-n5000-conditional-cash-transfer-list-8-states-ready/