Buhari inaugurates committee to lift 100 million from poverty

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday inaugurated the National Steering Committee of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy, chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

He said this re-echoed his commitment to lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years, with a well-researched framework for implementation and funding.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday titled, ‘President Buhari inaugurates steering committee on poverty reduction, establishes private equity fund.’

Speaking at the ceremony, the President said the NPRGS had already proposed the establishment of a private equity fund, the Nigeria Investment and Growth Fund, to lead resource mobilisation drive and also manage the resources in a sustainable manner.

He was quoted as saying, “This journey began in January 2021 when I directed the chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and Secretary to the Government of the Federation to collaboratively work together to articulate what will lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.”

Buhari added that the NPRGS would address the underlying causes of poverty on the basis of which it developed programmes that would deal with the multi-dimensional nature of poverty within the practical context of comparative advantage of human and natural resources in the various geo-political zones.

He said, “The major challenge before this National Steering Committee is to translate our good intention into positive impact of the average Nigerian so that we create an appreciative impact on the poverty situation in our country.

“If India can lift 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, Nigeria can surely lift 100 million out of poverty in 10 years. Fortunately, we have already started but we need to unlock the challenges of slow implementation, inappropriate targeting and absence of adequate resources.”

According to the President, the steering committee, among other things, will anchor collaborative efforts; provide oversight for the implementation of the strategy; guide the technical working group and federal ministries, extra ministerial departments and agencies, subnational governments and other stakeholders on meeting the objectives of the programme as well as monitoring progress and any other effort that would enhance the attainment of the objective of lifting 100million people out of poverty in 10 years.

The committee will include the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Chief of Staff to the President, the governors of Ekiti State (South West), Delta State (South-South), Sokoto State (North West), Borno State (North East), Nasarawa State (North Central) and Ebonyi State (South East).

Buhari charged the committee to start work immediately so that the Technical Working Group would also begin putting the nuts and bolts together.