About two million vulnerable Nigerians have benefited from projects implemented under the Federal Government’s National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) for the year 2022.
Spokesman for the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said in a statement that this was contained in a progress report presented at the meeting of the NPRGS Steering Committee on Wednesday.
Akande said the meeting, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, also indicated that about 1.6 million smallholder farmers were impacted under the Agriculture for Jobs Plan.
“Besides, 13,000 youths have been trained under a Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme in six states comprising Lagos, Ogun, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna and Nasarawa, while arrangements are underway to provide similar training for 2000 beneficiaries in Edo State.
“Equally, more than 8,000 Nigerians were employed in rural roads construction under the Rural Roads programme which built 40 rural roads in 120 communities, covering about 57.3km across the country.”
Akande said that the NPRGS implementation monitoring update presented by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, showed that “following the release of N50 billion, programmes that have achieved 100% completion include: Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP), and Construction of Rural Roads, among others.
“A total number of direct beneficiaries of the implemented programmes currently stands at 1,818,782 vulnerable Nigerians and a total of 9,527 Nigerians have also been directly employed through the implementation of the programmes so far.”
He said the committee also approved the sum of N250 billion for the execution of projects for the year 2023.
According to him, projects scheduled for implementation under the NPRGS for the year include the provision of 100,000 homes for low-income earners which will create 1 million jobs directly and indirectly and the expansion of energy access by providing 1,200 solar street lights in rural communities and six mini-grids for high-capacity productive farming under the Solar Naija Programme.
Others are the creation of 4.5 million direct and indirect jobs through the rural roads programme which targets the connection of about 750 rural markets, provision of N9 billion support for over 1.6 million vulnerable smallholder farmers for the 2023 wet season farming under the Agriculture for Jobs Plan and the expansion of the National Social Register with additional 3 million households.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State who is also the Co-Chair of the Technical Working Group for the Committee, said though implementation has not reached expected levels, efforts are underway to touch each of the targeted 15 areas of implementation.
He said, “Today, we just came to review the implementation and update on the spending on the projects so far and approval for this year’s projects for the same scheme.
“Based on what was received from the co-chair of the Technical Working Group, over N50 billion have been spent so far. The performance so far hasn’t reached the level we expected. But nearly every aspect of the 15 areas targeted is being implemented in one way or the other.”
Among members of the Steering Committee present were the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar; Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; and the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, who joined the meeting virtually.
