President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday confirmed speculations on the movement of the administration’s N500 billion Special Intervention Programme from the Office of the Vice President to the newly created Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The President who confirmed this during his 59th Independence Day Speech said the new ministry was created to institutionalise and consolidate on the programmes.
Initiatives under the Social Investment Programmes include the Home-grown School Feeding Programme, Government Economic Empowerment Programme, N-Power Job Creation Programme, loans for traders and artisans, Conditional Cash Transfers to the poorest families and social housing scheme.
The office of the Vice President was fully in charge of the management of the programmes in the first term of the administration.
However, the president assured that his administration was also committed to ensure that the inconvenience associated with “any painful policy adjustments, is moderated, such that the poor and the vulnerable, who are most at risk, do not bear the brunt’’.
Buhari assured that the Special Intervention Programme would continue to target these vulnerable groups.
“To institutionalize these impactful programmes, we created the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development which shall consolidate and build on our achievements to date.
“To the beneficiaries of these programmes, I want to reassure you that our commitment to social inclusion will only increase,’’ he added.
The president also observed that the nation’s population growth rate had remained among the highest in the world, presenting both challenges as well as opportunities.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we provide adequate resources to meet the basic needs of our teeming youth.
“Accordingly, we shall continue to invest in education, health, water and sanitation, as well as food security, to ensure that their basic needs are met, while providing them with every opportunity to live peaceful, prosperous and productive lives,’’ he maintained.