20M People Will Be Lifted Out Of Poverty In 2023 – Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has come out to say that with the successful activation of the Economic Sustainability Plan, ESP, Cash Transfer scheme, the Government vision of lifting about 20 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next two years can happen.

He recently revealed this via a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande in Abuja.

According to him, RRR is the means by which urban poor and vulnerable population can be speedily identified using geographic satellite technology and other related means for the purposes of delivering cash to households affected by the fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

He added that even if funding is still a problem, Nigeria must look for it because the country deserves a social security scheme that will not just alleviate poverty, but also create wealth for the millions of those who are waiting for this opportunity.

His words, “The groundbreaking success of the RRR, now emboldens us to achieve our aspiration of a social security programme for a minimum of twenty million Nigerians in the next two years. This will be the largest of its kind on the continent. This (aspiration) is, at least from the perspective of this tested approach, now well within our reach.”

“The only constraint, of course, is the funding which we must look for because this country deserves a social security scheme that will not merely alleviate poverty but also create wealth for the millions of those who are waiting for this opportunity.”

“Our government launched the National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) in 2017 to provide the framework for institutionalizing the work we started since 2016 on reducing extreme poverty in Nigeria, based on our administration’s vision to create a comprehensive social security programme for the poor and vulnerable and thereafter the pledge to lift 100 million Nigerian’s out of poverty in ten years.”

“As of 31st December 2020, we have identified and registered about 24.3 million poor and vulnerable individuals into the National Social Register; equivalent to about 5.7 million households. Through this project, we are currently injecting about N10 Billion directly into the hands of about 2 million poor and vulnerable people every month.”