FG To Pay N5,000 To The Poor, Put Graduates on Payroll

The Nigerian government plans to make cash payments to poor people of

about $25 per month to try to ease poverty and stimulate the economy, the

vice-president said on Thursday, a plan that would cost a total of about

$300 million per annum.
President Muhammadu Buhari won election in March 2015 on a promise to

fight poverty and corruption, which has held most of Nigeria's 180 million

people in poverty despite its oil wealth.
“One million poor and vulnerable Nigerians would receive 5,000 naira ($25)

monthly,” Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said in a statement outlining

government priorities for the next 12 months.
Nigeria's annual per capita income in 2014 was about $3,200 according to

the World Bank.
The government will also employ 500,000 graduates as voluntary teachers

while they seek jobs in their chosen careers, he said.

The initiatives were part of Buhari's election campaign. The former

military ruler has come under pressure in recent weeks due to fuel

shortages. The economy, Africa's largest, is also suffering from the

global slump in oil prices.
Osinbajo did not say how these benefits would be funded, saying only there

were part of a 6.06 trillion naira record budget for 2016 which parliament

passed last month. Buhari still has to sign the bill.

The government has said it wants to borrow as much as $5 billion abroad

but has not detailed how it wants to plug a budget deficit which officials

have put in the range of between 2.2 trillion and 3 trillion naira.

Buhari has rejected a devaluation of the naira, which would hit poor

people as Nigeria needs to import much of its food needs.

REUTERS
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