By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA—THE Federal Government, yesterday in Abuja said over 300,000 persons benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.

Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Social Welfare Programme, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, who disclosed this during a joint oversight visit by Senate and House Committees on Poverty Alleviation, also said N300 billion had been spent on the National Social Investment Programmes, NSIP, in the last three years.

Uwais said the SIP since inception in 2016 by the present administration was aimed at  improving the living conditions of Nigerians through capacity building, investment and direct support.

According to her, “So far we have over 11.5 million direct beneficiaries on all our programmes. We also have about nine million indirect beneficiaries. “Right now we have over 700,000 people on the National Social Register but the people we are paying under the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme are about 300,000.  This is because we select only the poorest of the poor in every community and every payment is done through their bank account, so we are able to track every kobo spent.”

Uwais said the programme was currently feeding over 9.5 million pupils in 30 states and  empowered 101,000 cooks.

“We are feeding over 9.5 million children in about 56,000 schools around the country. The value chain in the school feeding programme is just amazing. Not only are the children coming back to school, we are seeing that they are more alert in class and absolutely happy to come to school.   We are also seeing that farmers are smiling to the banks. This is because we need at least seven million eggs every week, over 600 cattle, 83 metric tonnes of fish and lots of fruits and vegetables.”

Uwais said  through the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) the federal government was providing financial support to businesses at the bottom of the financial pyramid.

https://newlive.vanguardngr.com/2019/04/demolition-of-abuja-orphanage/

Some of the programmes under GEEP executed to help the poorest of the poor she said were Tradermoni, Farmermoni, and Marketmoni

“Tradermoni was created specifically for petty traders and artisans across Nigeria. “With Tradermoni, you can receive interest-free loan starting from N10,000 and growing all the way to N100,000 as you pay back,” she said.

https://newlive.vanguardngr.com/2019/04/weve-increased-power-generation-to-8100mw-osinbajo/