Osinbajo laments poverty situation in Nigeria

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has lamented that the poverty situation in the country, as well the economic crisis and hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, are deepening daily.

Osinbajo in a statement made public by his spokesperson, Olaolu Akande during a presentation on the Economic Sustainability Plan at the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, said a N2.3trn stimulus package has been put in place by the Federal Government to cushion the effects of the economic crisis.

He however urged all concerned ministers to work out modalities to expedite action on the stimulus package.

The statement was titled, ‘VP to ministers at retreat: The N2.3trn stimulus package must be implemented quickly’.

Osinbajo said “We are already on Day 67 since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic; we have to do this stuff”.

“We have to ensure that we have the money and ensure that day by day, we are measuring our achievements and trying to ensure that we do the things that we need to do. And we are not favoured by time, every single day, the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen.”

The Vice President further said that the only way out of the current crisis was to make funds available for production, while also making plans to make money available in people’s hands.

He highlighted that government intends funding, the following: Agriculture Programmes, Solar Power projects, Mass housing programme, Public works programme and SME’s.

He explained that under the mass agriculture programme, the government had enumerated about four million farmers.

Under the mass housing programme, the government intends to build 300,000 homes across the country and ensure that their prices do not exceed N2m.

He reiterated that the Agriculture Programme requires N637.2bn funding and will provide five million jobs; the solar power project funding requires N152.4bn is expected to provide 250,000 jobs; the mass housing programme would require a funding of N217.3bn and is expected to create 1.5m jobs; while public works funding is N52bn to provide 774,000 jobs: and N100bn is required to provide 500, 000 jobs in the SMEs”.

He however advised that the plan should be appropriately implemented, because of the projections that the plan is capable of turning the nation’s economic fortunes around.