By Babajide Okeowo
In a bid to ensure that more Nigerians at the grassroots benefit from its social intervention programs, the Federal Government has revealed plans are in the pipeline to repackage the programs.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this has become imperative because the social intervention programs were not getting to the grassroots.
The Minister made this disclosure while speaking on the “Good Morning Nigeria” program on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA} recently.
He disclosed that many people in various states informed the Ministers on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari that the programs were not getting to as many people as they should.
“What we found out when we got home was that the programs were not trickling to the grassroots and that is why we have taken a decision to see how we can repackage them. Everywhere we went, even traditional rulers said they ought to be involved in the execution of the programs.
I recently wrote a memo to our colleagues that we want the list of all the programs, so that we can also periodically publish them and let them know where they can be accessed. It is not that there is no information on the programs. It is the execution that needs fine-tuning. We need to involve other tiers of government in the execution of some of these programs” the minister disclosed.
The Minister further disclosed that the various social intervention programs were initiated before the #EndSARS protests, and were designed to create jobs for the youths and also alleviate poverty among women and the vulnerable groups.Some of the programs include the N-Power, TRADERMONI, MARKETMONI, FARMERMONI, MSME Survival Fund, N75billion National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), amongst others.
Recall that there have been numerous public calls over the implementation of the various social intervention programs, with allegations of corruption and diversion of some funds.
This has led to conflicts between the members of the National Assembly and officials of the executive arm of government, who are saddled with the task of implementing the programs.
This has now led to the decision of the FG to repackage the programs to ensure that it fulfills the reason why it was set up.
