The Federal Government has started the
process of fulfilling its promise to pay N5,000 monthly allowance to 25
million unemployed youths in the country with 2016 as the take-off date,
The Fidelis Chidi blog investigation has revealed.
The All Progressives Congress, which
defeated the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the March 28
presidential election, had promised during its campaign that if elected
to the central government, it would pay N5,000 monthly to 25 million
jobless youths as well as introduce a free school feeding programme.
A motion to compel the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to fulfil the campaign promise
of paying the unemployed youths was recently rejected in the Senate.
Our correspondents learnt on Monday that
the Federal Government had, however, commenced plans to start the
payment of the allowance while it had also taken steps to capture the
free school feeding programme in the 2016 budget.
It was further learnt that the
government had saddled some officials with the task of ascertaining the
number of the unemployed youths, who would benefit from the scheme.
A top government official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity on Monday, told one of our correspondents that
the compilation of data was necessary in order to ensure that the
programme was not sabotaged.
The source said, “You know that if the
scheme is left open-ended, even Nigerians, who are employed and are by
no means vulnerable, will still struggle to benefit from it.
“You also know that if not properly
handled, politicians will hijack the scheme and it will become a means
of settling their constituents, whether they qualify to benefit from it
or not.
This is why the government will come up with data on the beneficiaries very soon.”
The source added that the fund meant for the scheme would be built into the 2016 budget.
He explained that it was only when a
decision had been reached on the number of people that would benefit
from the scheme that the government would have an idea of how much it
would spend on the programme.
He agreed that as a result of the
process to get ready the 2016 budget and passed it into law, the scheme
might not take off either in January or February, 2016.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, confirmed that
work was ongoing on the identification of beneficiaries, saying it was
the desire of government to ensure the commencement of the programme in
2016.
Akande stated, “Work is ongoing on
various aspects of the implementation of that social investment plan,
including the identification of those that will benefit from it. Very
soon, we shall be concluding work on that; that is a very important
aspect of the programme.
“The plan of the government is to start
as much as possible in the area of social investment, and conditional
cash transfer is part of it.
“It is the plan of the government to explore how to start this with the 2016 budget.”
Cash transfer scheme to gulp N125bn monthly
Investigations at the Ministry of
Finance as well as that of Budget and National Planning showed that the
process for the payment of the allowance to the unemployed had started
with the compilation of the 2016 budget.
According to analysis, the cash transfer
programme, when fully implemented, will cost the Federal Government
N125bn monthly and a total sum of N1.5tr annually.
This is amidst dwindling oil price, which has led to a reduction in government revenue by about 50 per cent.
This development has led to the
government recording fiscal deficit of about N676.47bn within the first
six months of 2015, according to statistics from the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
Top government officials, involved in
the preparation of the budget, confided in one of our correspondents
that both initiatives had been identified as part of the six priority
programmes that would be implemented under the social development sector
of the economy.
The source, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said apart from the cash transfer and school feeding
programme, other social protection and welfare schemes were being
planned to take care of Internally Displaced Persons.
Details of the initiative for IDPs were still sketchy as of the time of filing this report.
The official said, “We have started working on the budget since September this year at the Ministry of Budget and Planning.
“Since the ministry is the one
coordinating the plans of government, what we did was to identify six
priority programmes by pillars which have already been communicated to
all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
“So while preparing the medium term
plan, what we did was to look at the manifesto of the APC and prepare
our plan based on what its campaign promises were to Nigerians before
the elections.
“And since social development is a key
aspect of its campaign, we identified social protection schemes such as
the conditional cash transfer and the school feeding programme as key to
the programmes for 2016.”
The spokesman for the Ministry of Budget
and National Planning, Mr. Salisu Haiba, could not be reached for
comments as calls and text messages put to his number did not connect as
of the time of filing this report.
Shortly after the Senate shot down a
motion meant to compel Buhari to fulfil the promise, the wife of the
President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, had appealed to the ruling party not to
renege on its campaign promise of paying N5,000 to the 25 million
unemployed youths.
She also urged the party to fulfil its promise of giving schoolchildren one free meal a day.
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