Poverty: Social Investment saves 500,000 in Plateau – Officials

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Investment Program has saved at least 500,000 people from poverty in Plateau State, officials say.

SIP was launched in 2015 to provide financial grants, paid internships and school feeding for poor households.

Since the launch, 11,000 graduate youths have been enrolled into the program’s job creation NPower project, as 291,249 women received monthly grants under the Conditional Cash Transfer component, says Dr. Sumayya Hamza, Special Assistant to the Plateau State Governor and State Focal Person on Social Investment Program.

Another 3,285 cooks have been hired to feed 220,000 pupils in 1,970 public schools under the National Homegrown School feeding program, Hamza said on Thursday in Jos at a staff training workshop.

Thousands of small scale traders, according to her have equally benefited from the “TraderMoni” and “Marketmoni” grants.

“There is no doubt that a good percentage of residents of Plateau State are either direct or indirect beneficiaries because there family members are benefiting from the intervention or they are transacting business with those benefiting.

“Above all, the fact that an encouraging number of people are directly benefiting from the intervention helps to maintain peace and stability through useful engagements and, improved economic wellbeing of people, increased enrolment and enhanced livelihood among others,” she said.

The Program is still poised to do more, the Official said, hence the staff training workshop was organized.

“We are aware that sound health,
focused mind, committed spirit, among others are drivers of enhanced productivity. We have set a pace as far as SIP is concerned,” she said.

The workshop with the theme: “Enhancing Productivity through Capacity Development was necessary for the general performance of government, said Deputy Speaker, Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Saleh Yipmong.

Government according to him had designed series of programs to fight hunger and poverty but would not effectively implement them without a sound and skilled workforce.

Participants at the workshop were trained on how to plan for retirement, by an official of Plateau State Investment and Properties Commission, Mr. Gyang Dung Gyang, and personal health by Dr. Maryam Ali, a staff of the Jos University Teaching Hospital. There was a goodwill message from the Head of Civil Service, Mr. Izam Azi through his Deputy Director Admin , Mr Dung Jacob Bot.