The President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government on Monday said it would extend its social security payments net to graduates with qualifications from NCE and upwards.
Speaking to the press after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun, disclosed that the programme would see unemployed Nigerian youths being paid stipends.
“At this period of heightened food prices, President Bola Tinubu has committed to doing all that can be done to assist in giving purchasing power to the poorest and those in that line.
“He has committed and instructed that the Social Security unemployment programme be devised, particularly to cater for the youth, for the unemployed graduates, as well as the society as a whole.
“So, we have coming, in the near future, an unemployment benefit for the young unemployed, in particular,” the Minister announced.
Similarly, Edun stated that the Tinubu-led Federal Government will quickly create a consumer credit plan to alleviate the pains of economic change.
He explained that Femi Gbajabiamila, the President’s Chief of Staff, will lead a committee consisting of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and himself, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
“There is coming a social consumer credit programme. By making consumer credit available, goods become more affordable, and the economy even gets a chance to revive faster because people have purchasing power that allows them to order goods and products,” he stated.
Edun also discussed the review conducted by Tinubu’s Special Presidential Panel on the National Social Investment Programme, which has given a preliminary report to the President.
He noted that Tinubu gave the highlights of the Council meeting, noting that what was done was “a review of the existing mechanisms, a review of the existing programmemes, and where there have been successes, such as the 400,000 beneficiaries of the GEEP programme.”
He added, “So, the direct payments to 12 million households comprising 60 million Nigerians are to resume immediately, with the important proviso that every beneficiary will be identified by their national identity number and the bank verification number.
“Therefore, payments will be made into bank accounts or mobile money wallets. So, whether it is before or after, there is verification of the identity of beneficiaries.
“Each person that receives 25,000 Naira for a total of three months will be identifiable; even after they have received the money, it will be clear who it went to and when it went to them. And that is the big change that has allowed President Bola Tinubu to approve the restart of that direct payments to beneficiaries programme.”
Dr. Bosun Tijjani, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, indicated that beneficiaries would be validated using their bank verification numbers and national identity numbers to avoid multiple payouts to the same individual.
He said, “One of the initial moves that we’re making is leveraging the existing dataset that we have on our people. As you know, the BVN is well known to be extremely credible. NIN, on the other hand, which is now the most popular data identity system for Nigerians, is also the largest and most credible, and it covers quite a significant number of people as well.
“And what we’re looking to do here is triangulate this data set to ensure that not only are we using the register that has been properly populated, but that we also do proper verification of every individual that will benefit from that social investment programmeme, which means we will get commitment to ensuring that no one is paid twice because you have to be properly IDed before you can benefit from that programmeme.”
