‘Why poverty remains high’

Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) Ibadan has associated the high rate of poverty and youth restiveness with the poor implementation of social protection programmes in the country.

The institute held that government programmes such as Conditional cash transfer to the vulnerable, health fee waiver for pregnant women and children, community-based health insurance scheme failed to yield impactful results due to poor funding, poor coverage, political manipulation and wrong targeting of beneficiaries.

Dr Hakeem Tijani of the Public Sector Group, SGPRD, NISER, Ibadan decried these developments while presenting a research report at the monthly seminar series of the institute held on Tuesday.

While noting that social protection programmes for children of under-five, such as immunisation, free health care and free insecticide treated nets were successful in eradicating child mortality, Tijani said same success had not been recorded among youths and the elderly.

Chairman of the event, Dr Charles Akinola, of the office of the Economic Development and Partnership, Osun State Government, maintained that poverty rate remained high because social protection programmes failed to get to the real beneficiaries.

Giving instance of the success of the home grown feeding programme in Osun state, Akinola, who chaired the event, maintained that the effective implementation of such protection programmes would be impactful on the masses and many Nigerians.