2016 Budget: Presidency States Reasons for N500 Billion Social Investments

The Presidency  has given the reason behind the allocation of 500 billion Naira estimate in the 2016 budget to social investments, saying it was necessitated by the need to pay attention on the common man and spend the resources of the country on the poor people.

In a statement on Sunday, the Senior Special Assistant-Media & Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, pointed out that at no time in the nation’s budgetary history had the Federal Government made a specific vote of such volume for social welfare.

“Even economic historians now say that not only is the half a trillion Naira vote unprecedented, but it is also the greatest service ever done to the Nigerian state and people by any federal government administration,” Akande claimed.

He further explained that the six social safety plans would reduce high levels of poverty and vulnerabilities while also increasing Nigeria’s Human Development Index on the global UN rankings.

“The President’s vision is to increase investments in human capital to guarantee security for all, employment and improved well-being of the people,” the Vice President’s media aide added.

He stated that the presidency was aware that past attempts to address poverty had suffered because of insufficient political will, presence of various UN-coordinated initiatives and poorly targeted beneficiaries among other factors, and was working to avoid the pitfalls.

The Senior Special Assistant further explained that for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), where one million extremely poor Nigeria would receive 5000 Naira monthly in 2016, the money would be paid directly to the beneficiaries through a payment system that was being worked out.