By YUSUFU IDEGU, Jos –
The economy of Plateau state has been boosted with the gradual injection of over N20 billion between 2016 to date.
The injected funds represents the amount Plateau citizens have benefited so far from the National Social Investment program (NSIP), an initiative of the President Buhari administration.
This was revealed on Tuesday in Jos by the Executive Assistant to Governor/Focal Person, National Investment program Dr. Sumaye Hamza on the occasion of distribution of Engagement Letters and Devices to 76 Independent Monitors in Plateau state by the Hon. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Hamza stated that the NSIP was an effort by the President Muhamnadu Buhari led Federal Government to provide relief to the poor and vulnerable. “It is also a way of guaranteeing that primary school pupils get nourished meal while in school thus increasing school enrollment/retention, empowering women and farmers who are part of the value chain in the National Home Grown School Feeding Program (NHGSFP).
“NSIP also seeks to provide job opportunities to young Nigerians who are unemployed as well as encouraging Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurship”.
She said all these activities were carried out under four components of the NSIP which include; NHGSFP, Job Creation (N-Power), Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Government Enterprise Empowerment Program (GEEP).
The Focal Person further explained that as soon as President Buhari flagged off NSIP in 2016, Governor Simon Lalong didn’t waste time in providing all the necessary requirements including an enabling environment which enhanced immediate commencement of the program in Plateau state. “From inception, Plateau State has benefited tremendously from the program.
A total of 11, 408 benefited from the N-power among whom some got jobs and were honest to disengage even before the official exit date; there are 3,334 cooks feeding 259, 963 pupils in public primary schools classes 1-3; 26,000 Households benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer, more are being enrolled and over 2,000 under Co- Responsibility; over 6,000 beneficiaries under GEEP.
“Overall, more than N20billion has so far been injected into the Plateau State economy through these beneficiaries”, Dr. Hamza said.
She added that the Government of Plateau State under the leadership of Lalong was passionate on the intervention stressing that it would definitely continue to do all that is required to ensure that Plateau citizens maximally benefited from NSIP and all other interventions that would raise Plateau above the poverty line.
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