Millions benefited from Buhari’s social investment programmes in 2021 – FG

The Federal Government says millions of Nigerians benefitted from President Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Investment Programmes in 2021.

Listing the achievements on Thursday, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed recalled that on Buhari’s directive, the N-Power scheme was expanded from 500,000 to 1 million beneficiaries.

The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) was also restructured to GEEP 2.0.

The revamped GEEP 2.0, launched on August 24, 2021, has registered over 600,000 potential beneficiaries in all 774 Local Government Areas in partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

Mohammed insists the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) is growing strong.

The programme seeks to boost school enrolment and improve the nutrition of primary school pupils while sustaining the impact of agricultural and women entrepreneurs in communities.

The NHGSFP which aims to provide free school meals to 25 million children by 2030 is currently providing meals to nearly 10 million school kids.

The government said over 100,000 cooks and over 100,000 smallholder farmers in the local areas where the schools are located have been empowered.

“The Household Uplifting Programme (HUP), which has the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), is designed to provide targeted financial transfers to poor and vulnerable households.

“Those enrolled in the programme benefit from monthly grants of N5,000 to smoothen consumption, stimulate demand and ensure survival directly in the household.”

The minister added that since its inception, nearly 2 million eligible households across Nigeria are benefiting from the N5,000 monthly grant.

This figure is in addition to the 1 million Urban Poor benefitting from the CCT expanded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.