Last updated on February 1st, 2021 at 02:08 pm
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Monday disclosed that over 12 million households are beneficiaries of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) since the programme rolled out five years ago.
She stated this while flagging-off the disbursement of N20,000 cash (Grants for Rural Women Project) to 8,000 rural women in Kano State.
The beneficiaries were selected across the 44 local government areas of the most populated Northern state.
Breakdown of NSIP beneficiaries
According to Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Bashir Nura Alkali, here is the breakdown of beneficiaries:
| NSIP | Number of beneficiaries |
| N-Power | 500,000 |
| Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) | 1, 000, 000 indigents benefited N5,000 each |
| Micro and Small Business | 1,092,405 |
| Cash Grant for Rural Women Project | 125,000 women are to benefit N20,000 each |
| National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (1 meal per day under the) | 8,612,457 primary 1 – 3 pupils |
Inception of NSIP
The programme was launched a few months President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015.
NSIP is a strategy for enhancing social inclusion. It is adjudged as the largest social protection programme in Africa with over $1billion earmarked annually “to cause positive changes in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable in the country.”
Grant for Rural Women Programme
Speaking on the progress made on Grant for Rural Women Programme, Sadiya said, “the Programme was introduced in 2020 so as to sustain the social inclusion agenda of the president.
It is targeted at lifting 100,000 Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
“It is designed to provide a one-off grant of N20,000 to some of the women in rural and peri-urban areas of the country (across 36 states and FCT).
“Our target in Kano State is to disburse the grant to over 8,000 beneficiaries across the 44 local government areas. The grant is expected to increase income and productive assets of target beneficiaries,” she said.
Kano government wants more
In a related development, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has appealed to the APC-led government for enrolment of additional 88,000 beneficiaries.
The APC governor want Buhari to enrol 2,000 each across 44 LGAs from the state under the Government Enterprise Empowerment Program (GEEP).
Ganduje who spoke through his Deputy, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna also appealed for immediate approval of 35,000 remaining Conditional Cash Transfer beneficiaries from 15 Local Governments of the State.
Has anything changed?
Some exited beneficiaries of the N-Power programme are now business owners, but it’s like a drop of water in the ocean considering the number of others whose entire households depended on N30, 000 monthly stipends.
On the Grant for Rural Women Programme, it sounded funny when she said the administration would lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty through the N20, 000 stipends. How?
This is a country that has been ravaged by hyperinflation since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the level of insecurity in the country.
For instance, some Northern farmers in Borno, Yobe, Niger, Benue, Adamawa are unable to access their farms due to invasion by Boko Haram, bandits, and Fulani herdsmen.