The Federal Government intends to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated this iover the weekend.
Osinbajo speaking at an event organised by African Venture Philanthropic Alliance, AVPA, and IBAN, tagged “African Policy Road Show- Building Robust Policies for Increased Social Investment & Inclusive Business”, said lifting 100million Nigerians out of poverty was possible but noted that it required human capital, restored growth, investors, and micro economic policies, among others.
Represented by his Special Adviser, Ambassador Adeyemi Dipeolu, the Vice President said since the inception of the Buhari’s administration, there had been a reduction in the inequality gap with the eradication of malnutrition in the country, with the National School Feeding Programmes.
He noted that the school feeding programme of the government has provided jobs for over 106,000 cooks in 53,000 schools nationwide.
According to him, the Micro, Small and Medium enterprise, MSMEs, is geared towards improving the lives of the people,
He stressed that the N-power social empowerment scheme, which has over 500,000 graduates beneficiaries, has helped to reduce unemployment and poverty for those at the bottom of the financial pyramid.
Osinbajo noted that the Market Money Farmer programme has provided affordable credits for SMEs start ups for farmers and small scale business operators, adding that this has helped to improve the living conditions of vulnerable families.
Executive Director, IBAN Mr. Christian Jahnn, said the organisation was designed to strengthen inclusive businesses in geographical space, and that Nigeria had a huge and young population that was willing to work.
“We need change and policy makers to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. It is not rocket science, we must change the approach of doing business and integrate them along the value chain and that is why we are being funded by the European Union and multinationals to develop capacity, encourage social investment by working directly with the mainstream economy.”
“IBAN is geared to mobilise the public sector to grow the creative economy and promote inclusive business on a national and regional level, while urging the government to tighten up the link of small, micro and medium enterprise in the value chain by building up templates for sustainability,” he stressed.
Also speaking at the event, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, former Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, stressed the need to implement policy.
According to him, the economy is not just about having strategies but having strategies that should be implemented so as to have a catalytic multiplying effect.
“Government has programmes that will make the country succeed when implemented. Also, the AFCFTA policy is a good plan that will drive good outcomes and bring direct impact to the economy.
”The biggest challenge we have is the problem of inclusive growth and actionable plans and that is why we must partner with the government for the development of the policy down to it’s execution,” he said.
