The House at its plenary session on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 has called on the Federal Government to be more effective in implementing various special intervention programmes (SIP) aimed at tackling poverty in the country after lawmakers adopted a motion on “the need to strengthen the fight against poverty”. The motion was moved in recognition of the United Nations 2017 International day for the eradication of poverty.
Presenting the motion at the floor of the House, Hon. Muhammed Ali Wudil (APC: Kano) stated that this year was the twenty-fifth anniversary since the declaration of the International day for the eradication of poverty by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. He also stressed that it was a day earmarked for governments worldwide to rise up to the challenges of providing basic necessities of life for its citizens.
Speaking further, he highlighted some of the efforts that the Federal Government had undertaken to eradicate poverty in Nigeria in its 2017 Budgetary provision for the SIP fund targeted at unemployed youths, women empowerment and job creation. However, he expressed concern that the measures were yet to impact positively as anticipated on the country’s poverty index record. A recent UN report on Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis (CCA), described the nation as “one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world”. It also stated that over 80 million or 64% of the population people lived below the globally defined poverty line of $1.90 per day. Nigeria is home to a population of 175 million persons.
Finally, the House of Representatives recommended that the Federal Government should promote the establishment of small and medium scale enterprise through relevant agencies such as the Small and Medium Scale Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). Lawmakers were generally of the view that the promotion of small and medium scale businesses would enable more people to be gainfully employed and would improve both the standard of living and the country’s poverty index record.
