By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
The federal government said yesterday that it has spent N41, 714,793,293 billion across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on four Social Investment Programmes (SIPs).
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media an Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, said the N-Power, which is the job programme for unemployed graduates, received N26.418 billion.
He said the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP) have received N7.092 billion, N800 million and N7.301 billion, respectively.
He said under the N-Power job scheme for unemployed graduates now running in 36 States and FCT, 162,024 unemployed graduates have been enrolled and validated to be receiving the N30,000 monthly stipends, out of the 200,000 originally engaged late last year.
According to him, under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, 26,942 beneficiaries were being funded as at last month with the monthly N5, 000 stipend in nine states (Borno, Cross River, Niger, Kwara, Ekiti, Kogi, Oyo, Osun and Bauchi) and 84 local government areas.
He said the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) designed for the empowerment of market women, traders and artisans has also recorded good progress with the disbursement of 57,234 interest free loans, except a one-time low administrative fee.
Akande also disclosed that no less than 25 million meals have been served under the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, stressing that the Presidency is now implementing a huge ramp up of the Social Investment Programmes as directed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
He said a breakdown of the total number of meals served shows that 1,051,619 million primary school pupils are now being fed across the seven states of Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Zamfara.
“No less than 11,847 cooks have also been employed. Altogether 8,587 schools are involved in those states. Indeed possibly, later in the week, more meals will be served as Delta and Abia states are now ready to be paid under the federal government school feeding scheme.
“Specifically, Delta state is expected to receive soon, a sum of N63, 366,100 to start the feeding of 90, 523 primary school pupils. In the same vein, Abia State is also expected to receive N42, 921, 200,” he said.
