An economic think tank has scored the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo high on poverty reduction, ahead of their May 29 inauguration. The National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) report, which was released on Friday, rates the administration highly in key areas of its poverty reduction programmes.
The Agriculture for Jobs Plan, for instance, impacted about 1.6 million smallholder farmers, while 13,000 youths have been trained under technical and vocational education and training programmes in six states including Lagos, Ogun, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, and Nasarawa. The administration is also preparing to provide similar training for 2000 beneficiaries in Edo State.
Tens of thousands of Nigerians have been employed in rural road construction under the Rural Roads programme, which built 40 rural roads in 120 communities, covering about 57.3 km across the country. According to a media update by the Vice President’s spokesman, Mr Laolu Akande, “almost two million vulnerable Nigerians have been impacted by various projects implemented by the NPRGS Committee for the year 2022 in agriculture, rural road construction, and skills and vocational training.”
Prof. Osinbajo recently underscored the Buhari administration’s plan to lift 100 million out of poverty in ten years with a simple, common-sense strategy that will deliver results as promised by the President. “Some programmes that have achieved 100% completion for the 2022 cycle include Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP) and Construction of Rural Roads, among others,” said Akande.
“The committee at its last meeting of the administration recently approved the sum of N250 billion for the execution of projects for this year running,” he added. All in all, the NPRGS report indicates the administration’s poverty reduction programmes have reached over one million people directly, while indirectly impacting several others.
