By Chimezie Godfrey
The Minister, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, says the ministry will enroll more women and youths in the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP), to enable them earn more income and be more self sufficient.
Disclosing this at an inter-ministerial dialogue session on Tuesday in Abuja, the Minister also gave the history of the NSIP, especially the N-Power, while disclosing the ministry’s decision to restructure the program for efficiency.
“The Ministry has undertaken a review and re-appraisal of the programme in order to strengthen the program design and streamline for efficiency.”
“Part of the reforms and streamlining will see a reduction in tenure from the current 24 months, launch of the Integrated National Social Investment Programme (I-NSIP).
“This is intended to reposition N-SIP to cater to vulnerable groups in society by providing them access to shock responsive interventions, life skills & mentorship in order to systematically lift people out of poverty.
“Others include enrolling more women on the program to empower them, so that they can earn an income and be more self-sufficient while privileging N-Teach, N-Health and N-Agro as areas of key priority attention,” she said.
The session was attended by Minister of Agriculture, Sabo Nanono, Minister of State Budget and Planning, Clem Agba, Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen and Minister of State Education, Emeka Nwajiuba.
The ministers resolved that attention should be paid to helping the youth to convert knowledge into skills, while providing opportunities for them to digitalise and organise markets.
They all agreed that emphasis should be on building on existing structures from the National Directorate of Employment to Digital Literacy and Skills Acquisition programme (DEEL) as well as the Work Experience Programme (WEP) of the Ministry of Youth & Sports Development.
The ministers also resolved that the core emphasis of the NSIP must be on the youths who account for 70 million of the Nigerian population even as youth unemployment stands at over 20% with 4.5 million entering the job market annually.
