Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has shed some light on how the proposed N5,000 to be paid to unemployed Nigerians, will work effectively.
“What
we want to achieve by our social intervention of which the conditional
transfer is just one part, is to move out millions of Nigerians from
poverty. That is why we have this half a trillion naira social
intervention.
we intend to do with the half a trillion naira is to train market women,
artisans and unemployed graduates in the art of management and also
give them loans to start their own businesses. Part of our social
intervention also includes the transfer of N5,000 to the most vulnerable
people.
And we are being partnered in this by the World
Bank and other multilateral organisations. It has been done in many
countries before and we believe that it can be done here. Many people
have written ridiculously about N5,000 and claimed that it is not up to
what they spend on recharge cards. And we said yes, those who are
writing such things are not the average Nigerians we are seeking to
help.
If you look at the lady who is selling water melon
or pawpaw, she does not have up to N5,000 capital. People don’t know
that N5,000 can be meaningful for many Nigerians because they are too
comfortable in their corners. They do not know that N5,000 can make the
difference between life and death for many Nigerians.
Many
people have died because they cannot afford transportation to the
health centres. We are grappling with the reality on ground and we know
that this conditional cash transfer is working in some states and it is
being piloted by DIFID. In Jigawa, Yobe, and Kano, a British group is
tying the conditional N5,000 transfer on a pilot scheme.
When
we say conditional transfer, it means that you must show evidence that
you have enrolled your children in school and immunised them. It is not
just that we are giving you money free, you must also show evidence that
you have complied with some obligations. We know it works because it
has increased school enrolment, led to a drop in mortality rate and
decline in stunted growth.
Apart from blockages and
savings, there are many government institutions today, who ought to be
returning money to the treasury but they are not doing so. We know that
some organisations made over N20 billion last year but returned less
than N100 million to the treasury.
This is why the idea
of the Treasury Single Account is so important to us. We are going back
to the basics. We believe that the money for this project will come from
savings, budget and prudent management. Also we are going to have
support from multilateral organisations, especially in the area of cash
transfer. Again some of these projects are not just recurrent, they are
also capital in a way.”