Nov. 29, 2022

President Muhammadu Buhari has written the Senate, seeking for the legalisation and Institutionalisation of Social Investment Programme in Nigeria, NSIP.

Buhari in the letter to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, requested the Senate to consider and approve an executive bill forwarded to it to that effect.

The letter reads: “Pursuant to Section 8(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I forward herewith the National Social Investment Programme Bill for the kind consideration of the Senate.

“The bill seeks to provide a legal framework for the establishment of National Social Investment Programme for the assistance and empowerment of the poor and vulnerable people in Nigeria.

In another letter, Buhari also sought for concurrence of the Senate to National Park Declaration Order made earlier in the year for the establishment of 10 New National Parks across the country.

Similarly, Buhari in two other requests, sought the consideration and passage of National Library Establishment Bill 2022.

The proposed law according to him would provide the legal frame work for maintenance of National Library of Nigeria and strengthen its statutory functions.

Final request of the President to the Senate was for the consideration and passage of an executive bill on Federal Produce Inspection Service.

The Federal Government of Nigeria established the National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP) in 2016, to tackle poverty and hunger across the country.

The suite of programmes under the NSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth and women.

The N-power programme is designed to assist young Nigerians between the ages of 18 to 35 to acquire and develop life-long skills for becoming change makers in their communities and players in the domestic and global markets and given a stipend of N30,000 monthly.

The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme directly supports those within the lowest poverty bracket by improving nutrition, increasing household consumption and supporting the development of human capital through cash benefits to various categories of the poor and vulnerable.

The support is conditioned on fulfilling soft and hard co-responsibilities that enable recipients improve their standard of living.

Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is a micro-lending intervention that targets traders, artisans, enterprising youth, farmers and women in particular, by providing loans between 10,000 and 100,000 at no monthly cost to beneficiaries.

The Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSF) aims to deliver school feeding to young children with a specific focus on increasing school enrollment, reducing the incidence of malnutrition (especially among the poor and those ordinarily unable to eat a meal-a-day), empowering community women as cooks and by supporting small farmers that help stimulate economic growth. (NAN)