Poverty Eradication Through The National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) In Nigeria

ON 22 December 1992, the United Nations designated 17th October as the International Day for Eradication of Poverty. As a member Nation, Nigeria, in accordance with our will and deliverance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recognizes this day as one to promote the graduation out of poverty of people living in poverty, their communities and societies at large.
Eradicating poverty relies on governments creating sustainable solutions that target the twin problems of hunger and poverty simultaneously. With more than 112 Million Nigerians living below the poverty line, poverty is a grave concern to the country.
The Federal Government of Nigeria, through its National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP), has been able to target this epidemic by providing a temporary buffer for citizens that enables them to feed themselves and their families. The suite of programmes under the NSIP focuses on building human capacity and opportunities to succeed by a plan that stimulates change management and sustainability through citizen ownership and government’s commitment to strive towards a more equitable distribution of resources amongst its citizenry.
Since 2016, these programmes combined have supported more than 4 million beneficiaries country wide through a fair and transparent process supported by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP) and other notable MDA’s with similar aligned goals.
Most programmes are currently being implemented in all 36 States of the Federation plus the Federal Capitol Territory (FCT), but challenges continue to exist within the States whose, buy-in and commitments are required in order to set up the necessary systems within their jurisdictions.
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.
Millions of Nigerians are already benefitting from these programmes. The United Nations, recognizes that poor people live in poor countries and rich countries alike, and that actions taken in one part of the world can have profound and far reaching consequences in other parts of the world. As such, Nigeria looks to other Nations to support these highly-effective programmes.
In recognition of this day, 17th October 2017, we celebrate the unity between Nations and recognize that our combined journey is nearer than we predict, when we come together. When Nations share experiences, support and work hand-in-hand to solve the most critical challenges, we shall make a huge dent on poverty, around the world.