Vice President Namadi Sambo
Senator Iroegbu and Adedayo Akinwale
The Federal Government and state governments of the federation have committed N5 billion each to the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme aimed at alleviating poverty and accelerating progress towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ahead of 2015.
The CCT, is designed to address the needs of qualified core poor households with a view to giving them access to funds aimed at improving their lives and children’s.
According to the scheme designed to be beneficial to no fewer 56, 250 households within a year, each of such households will obtain grants ranging from N5,000 to N100,000 to commence trading.
Disclosing this in Abuja at the 2012 Training and Sensitisation Workshop for the Scale up of OSSAP-MDGs Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Scheme, Senior Special Adviser to the President on MDGs (SSAP-MDGs), Dr. Precious Kalamba Gbeneol, said despite achievements recorded in some of the MDGs in Nigeria, the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) suggested that a lot still needed to be done to bridge the inequality gap.
Gbeneol said the development had triggered government’s determination to address the problem of inequality and consequently stimulate economic growth among the rural poor.
She said: “This CCT scale up is designed primarily to help fast-track progress in the health and education sectors. The programme seeks to stimulate an increase in the rate of enrolment and access to stimulate healthcare.
“The intervention has been strategically designed to provide cash grants to extreme poor households as a form of investment in human capital development. the CCT shall insist on households allowing their children or wards to enroll in school and remain in school.
“This year, my office is committing the sum of N5 billion to the CCT scale up from the Debt Relief Grants which will be matched by an equal sum by all participating states for the generation of a total sum of N10 billion. This will enable interventions in about 56,250 households within a year. Each of the households will be entitled to a monthly grants of N5,000 and N100,000 in lump at the end of one year to start a trade,” she said.