Cheering news has it that the federal government at the weekend declared that there are ongoing plans to implement one of its striking campaign promises that it will pay N5000 each to unemployed graduated and poorest Nigerians across the country.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who gave the hint noted that government is “currently evaluating the best ways to collapse existing cash transfer and social welfare schemes to ensure consistency and alignment.
“Once this is completed, we will implement the first phase of this program, using recognized identification platforms and transparent payment solutions”, he added.
Osinbajo who disclosed this at the 10th Year Anniversary Lecture of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State titled, ‘The Nigerian Economy and the Future’, also said the federal government has identified the weak transmission grid, which prevents the wheeling of more than 5,000MW as a gridlock to be removed.
He assured that the Buhari administration would work with the distribution companies to ensure the necessary investment to get electricity to consumers is in place.
On the pervasive poverty ravaging the country, Osinbajo said the payment of N5000 each to poor Nigerians was necessary because “we cannot talk about the economy of the future without addressing how we move people out of poverty.
“One of the most striking promises we made during the campaign was the payment of Five Thousand Naira to the poorest Nigerians across the country”, he noted, even as he regretted that today, “about 112 million (66% of Nigerians) are deemed extremely poor, measured by World Bank parameter of those living on less than US$1.25 per day.”
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