| From nigeriafirst.org
His Excellency, President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua, GCFR At the Launching of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme for the Poor Abuja. 11th December 2007 PROTOCOL It is with great pleasure that I address you today on this occasion of the launching of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme of the Federal Government. This programme is a component of the Social Safety Net (SSN) Scheme which is aimed at improving the lives of our people. The Social Safety Net Scheme as implemented by the National Poverty Eradication Programme, (NAPEP) comprises the scaling up of on going Schemes for the empowerment of economically active women, farmers and youths, and the introduction of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme to support people in extreme poverty. CCT, which is being funded through debt relief gains earmarked for driving the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria, has the objective of breaking the transfer of poverty across generations through investment in human capital development. In contributing to enhanced enrolment and retention of primary school-age children, as well as immunization of children under age five, the programme will impact positively on reducing poverty over time, and will boost our steady progress towards the attainment of the millennium development goals. The utilization of Debt Relief Gains (DRGs) by the immediate past Administration for fighting poverty and meeting our MDGs, a policy which our Administration has vigorously continued, is in keeping with the terms of the debt relief granted Nigeria by our creditors. It is also a clear demonstration of our commitment to the implementation and sustained support for schemes and initiatives aimed at facing up to the challenges of poverty eradication and wealth creation. We are committed to building a strong and economically competitive Nigeria, where there is mass participation in the economic development process. This entails ensuring that the impact of the various policies and programmes of the government in poverty reduction are widely felt. To this end, Government will continue to strengthen the coordinating and monitoring framework of implementing these policies and programmes. In particular, the needs of millions of Nigerians who are unable to take advantage of empowerment opportunities and facilities provided will not be ignored. The CCT is specifically targeted at taking care of the needs of qualified core poor households to enable them provide a better opportunity in life for their children. It is against this backdrop that we are gathered here today to launch our social assistance project to support the poor of Nigeria. I would like to emphasize that a scheme of this nature requires enormous commitment and resources. The allocated debt relief gains are hardly enough for the pilot phase of the scheme. The continued sustainability of the scheme would largely depend on political support and financial commitment from State and Local governments, as well as the organized private sector. This means that we must continue with our quest for productive public-private partnerships at all levels of policy endeavor. I urge the States to come out strongly and assume ownership of the scheme, thereby enabling the Federal Government to focus primarily on coordination, technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation. Based on global experience, the greatest challenges to this scheme include incorrect targeting, corruption and other unintended leakages. However, these can be substantially minimized through the community-driven development approach adopted by NAPEP in implementing the scheme. The fact that the local communities would play a key role in the selection, supervision and monitoring process should, to a large extent, greatly minimize any abuses and leakages. I therefore, urge our local communities to take this role seriously and ensure that only qualified core poor households benefit from this scheme. Today’s launch is for the commencement of the pilot phase of the programme in two states from each geo-political zone of the Federation making a total of twelve and the FCT. Once again, I call on our development partners, Local and State Governments; the organized private sector and the generality of Nigerians to fully support NAPEP in its implementation of community driven projects like the newly introduced Village Economic Development Solutions Scheme, (VEDS) and the CCT which we are launching today. It is through competitiveness and mass participation in the economic development process that our great nation would actualize the vision of joining the club of industrialized nations by 2020. I would like to seize this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea for their kind gift of a fleet of six specially fitted vehicles donated to NAPEP in support of the programme. With this kind of international support, we are confident that our poverty reduction efforts will meet with great success. I congratulate the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), the MDG office, SMEDAN and the entire multi-sectoral project team on the occasion of this launch. I also appreciate the technical assistance provided by the World Bank and other stakeholders. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to launch Nigeria’s Conditional Cash Transfer programme to the glory of God and the welfare and well-being of the nation’s poor. Thank you and God bless you all. © Copyright 2006 nigeriafirst.org |