President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja said the ongoing efforts to reduce poverty in the country continued to grow with 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households, comprising more than 8 million individuals currently benefiting from the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme, while N300 billion had been disbursed to farmers.
This is coming just as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed plans by the Federal Government to launch a N15 trillion infrastructure fund by October, 2021.
Speaking virtually at the opening ceremony of the 14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, the president said the National Social Register of poor and vulnerable Nigerians had 32.6 million persons from 7 million poor and vulnerable households identified, imploring bankers to play a stronger role in improving livelihoods.
From this number, 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households, comprising more than 8 million individuals are currently benefiting from the conditional cash transfer programme, which pays a bi-monthly stipend of N10, 000 per household,” he said.
President Buhari said the National Social Investment Programme was biggest in sub-Sahara Africa and one of the largest in the world.
He said, “Some of the various initiatives embarked upon to boost agric trade in Nigeria include the Anchor Borrowers Programme through which the Central Bank of Nigeria had made more than N300 billion available to over 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities including rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soybeans, groundnut, fish, cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland.
“It is on record that 80 percent of rice consumed in Nigeria is now produced locally.”
To further strengthen recovery and empower more Nigerians, President Buhari said last year he approved the establishment of InfraCo Plc, a world-class infrastructure development vehicle, wholly focused on Nigeria, with combined debt and equity take-off capital of N15 trillion, managed by an independent infrastructure fund manager.
