World Bank boosts FG’s Special Intervention programmes with $500m credit

The Federal Government’s Special Intervention programmes under the Social Safety Nets coordinating office has received a boost of $500 million credit from the World Bank, the National Coordinator, National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office(NASSCO), Iorwa Apera, has said.

Aprea, who briefed newsmen on activities of the NASSCO and the Social Safety nets programmes of the current administration said that the programmes, including the Conditional Cash Transfer, the Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO) and the Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) were also being funded with the $322 million Abacha loot received from the government of Switzerland.

ALSO READ: Switzerland returned $322.5m Abacha loot with interest ―Envoy

He said that the World Bank credit will run for three years, adding that the coordinating office has a responsibility to every two years review the social register to identify families that might have exited the poverty line and those who might have fallen in due to circumstances.

According to him, NASSCO has so far developed a social register for poor and vulnerable Nigerians in 20 states of the federation affecting 578,645 Poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs), 2, 276, 996 individuals with 1, 128,390 males and 1,148,576 females.

He said that the data of the poor and vulnerable being captured in the states by NASSCO is difficult to hijack by politicians adding that the register is compiled with direct inputs from affected communities.

While defending the decision to divert funds like the Abacha loot toward social safety nets, Apera said that studies have found that 68 per cent of cash transferred to pregnant women at the rate of N5,000 goes into consumables.

He added that the affected women are found to easily patronise local shops and groceries, a development he said have an immediate impact on purchasing power, turnovers and capacity to pay tax at the local levels.

He said: “Investments in human capital is not only impactful but a stimulant to support development objectives.”

He also revealed that the social safety nets offices are developing accessible databases that can be accessed by Nigerians who are interested in transparency of the programmes.

“We are prepared to take media men on tours of communities, not just to earmark but to eye-mark the implementation process,” he said.