FG pledges use of funds for citizens’ welfare

The Federal Government on Tuesday promised to make judicious use of all funds generated by the country to improve the welfare of the citizens.
President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, made the pledge while addressing the 2018 Workers’ Day rally in Abuja.
He regretted that in the past individual Nigerians pocketed revenues made for the public and were unable to provide for their needs.
Buhari said: “I assure you that under our administration we will ensure that we expend every kobo of public funds toward securing the welfare of Nigerians.
“We have continued to demonstrate our commitment to the welfare of Nigerians by ensuring that we protect the socially excluded and the socially vulnerable.
“For the first time in the history of our country we are implementing a full social protection programme through a youth employment scheme, N-Power, micro credit to small businesses, conditional cash transfers to the poorest and the home grown school feeding programme.’’
The President remarked that so far the administration had employed 200,000 graduates in its N-power programmes and was planning to employing 300,000 more.
He said that as at today the FG was feeding over seven million children in 22 states and had employed 70,000 cooks.
He added that it had granted 362,000 micro credit loans although its target was to give one million micro credit loans especially to market women and artisans.
The President acknowledged that no fewer than 300,000 of the one million targeted poorest Nigerians had received funds through conditional cash transfers.
He said: “The issue of course is that every country of the size of Nigeria, especially a developing country, must have a social protection policy. We must have a safety net.
“The resources of the country must be used to protect those who either cannot work or are vulnerable or poor in ways that only those who experience it can imagine.
“It is our duty and we take it as a duty as a progressive government to ensure that we protect the poor and the vulnerable and this is the main objectives of the programmes that we have put in place.’’
According to him the programmes have been targeted at the most vulnerable segments of the society and are meant to ensure that we build a socially cohesive society in which resources of the country work for all.
He said the administration would continue to apply public funds in such a way that no section of the country or segment of the population suffered social exclusion.
Buhari said it informed the administration’s focus on agriculture adding that since the policy started importation of rice had dropped to two per cent.
He said: “Millions of farmers producing rice, sorghum, millet, tomatoes and other types of grains also are everyday earning decent returns on their investments.
“We will soon be self-sufficient in both rice and tomato paste. we will soon be self -sufficient  in our food.’’