Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says plans for the effective commencement of a number of social investment programmes of the Buhari presidency has reached advanced stages.
Osinbajo told journalists and producers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday that the selection of the first 200,000 unemployed graduates to get jobs was now being completed.
“We expect that before the end of the month, we will engage 200,000, out of the 500,000 unemployed graduates the Buhari administration plans to hire in the N-Power jobs programme’’, he said.
According to him, the direct government jobs are meant to keep young people occupied, pay them some amount of money and also give them a device.
He said the device would also help them to learn several skills that they could develop with time.
Osinbajo added that “we expect that before the end of this month, we should have engaged 200,000 of them and we are hoping that before the end of the year we should have engaged more.”
The vice president also disclosed that the Home-Grown School Feeding programme was set to begin in several states in October.
“Definitely before the end of this month, we expect that several states would have come on stream with their Home-grown School Feeding Programmes”, he added.
“The Home-Grown School Feeding programme will energise agriculture in the states because it is what you plant that you feed the children with.
“We will be hiring caterers, cooks, et cetera in each state because it will be Federal Government-funded from Primary One to Primary Three.
“The state governments hopefully would be able to cater for the other classes.”
According to the vice president, the Home-Grown School Feeding programme is another section of the Social Investment programmes that impact directly on the lives of Nigerian children and families.
He said many states would start implementing the Home-grown School Feeding Programme before the end of October.
The VP also stated that the Micro-Credit scheme for no fewer than one million Nigerian artisans, traders, market women and others would also commence in October.
“For women across the country, we are giving loans, micro credit loans to about 1.5 million women; we are focusing on market women and artisans, loans between N60,000 and 100,000 each.
“We are working through the Bank of Industry (BOI). They are going to be giving out these loans, we‘ve already identified the banks and everybody who is involved in this.’’
The vice president reassured Nigerians that the current administration was well focused on ameliorating the plight of the citizens of the country.
He noted that the administration was feeling the pains of the citizens and was committed to assuaging them.
On the economy, Osinbajo said government was committed to developing it to enable citizens to find opportunities within the country.
“I want to assure Nigerians that the government of President Buhari is a very focused and determined government.
“We are committed to ensuring that we are able to develop the Nigerian economy in such a way that Nigerians are able to find opportunities in their own country’’, he said.
He listed the ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ project, moving away from import dependence, boosting agriculture, and encouraging manufacturing as some of the urgent actions being pursued by government.
The vice president also emphasised the Buhari administration’s zero tolerance for corruption, as corruption is “the major drain on the country’s resources.
“No one would be spared in the fight against corruption because even the close friends of the President know that they will not be spared; he will not cover for them.
“Fighting corruption is a priority,” he stressed.
On the current recession, the vice president said the fall in oil prices and pipeline vandalism were the immediate causes of the recession, as they reduced the country’s revenue drastically.
He assured that government would adequately manage the little being realised.
“We were producing up to 2.2 million barrels a day but all of a sudden, the vandalism of our terminals caused us to lose up to a million barrels a day.
“So when you lose up to 60 per cent of your revenue or even more, there must be a shock because you are really earning very little.
“We will ensure that that very little that we are earning is as well managed as possible”, he said.
