DEVELOPMENT-NIGERIA: Govt Embarks on Programme to Combat Poverty

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jan 29 2002 (IPS) - The Nigerian government has embarked on a programme to combat poverty in a bid to keep youth off the street.

“Despite efforts in the past two decades to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians through programmes created to provide employment opportunities, the country still remains a highly unemployed society,” says Mathew Aderemi, an economist based in Lagos, commercial capital of Nigeria.

About five million youths were out of job by mid last year, according to official figures. More than 80 million of the estimated 120 million Nigerians live below the poverty line with women forming 70 percent of the group.

“There are so many unemployed youths roaming the streets. The situation, which has led to human trafficking, has forced many young girls into prostitution both within and outside the country,” Aderemi told IPS.

Up to 10,000 Nigerian girls earn a living as sex workers in Italy, according to reports from that country.

“The past programmes to provide employment opportunities failed due to loss of focus,” says Danlami Abdul-Hammed of the government-owned National Orientation Agency (NOA).

Violent crimes, which are mainly caused by youth idleness and unemployment, has prompted President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to introduced a National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP).

Adamu Waziri, National Co-ordinator of NAPEP says: “Funds would be made available as working capital to enable beneficiaries set up businesses.”

“The credit facility is expected to attract 10 percent interest annually with three months moratorium before the commencement of the repayment,” he says.

Last year NAPED drew up a budget of 6.12 billion Naira (19.3 million U.S. dollars) for poverty alleviation programme, which kicked off in September.

The first batch of students completed training in December. The students have been deployed across Nigeria’s 36 states. The list for the second batch is currently being compiled. The third batch will start training in July.

Up to 60,000 unemployed graduates from the nation’s higher institutions would be registered and trained under the Mandatory Attachment Programme (MAP) for a period of two years.

Four million youths, enrolled in Dec 2001, will graduate in Dec 2003, according to Waziri.

Nasarawa State in northern Nigeria, for example, has offered employment to 2,408 out of the 3,012 youths allocated to it, according to Ibrahim Arikya, co-ordinator of NAPEP programme in the state.

“Most of the beneficiaries were sent to the private sector. With the successful employment of these youths, we are glad that the issue of graduate unemployment in the state has been reduced to a minimal level. Each of the graduate employees, under the scheme, is paid a sum of 10,000 Naira (about 91 U.S. dollars) monthly allowance,” he discloses.

Trainees enrol in various trades, such as weaving, tailoring, computing, among others, to acquire necessary skills to enable them stand on their own feet, instead of looking for white collar jobs, says Arikya.

Women are, however, worried that the failure to include them may affect the programme.

Ngozi Imoukhuede, president of Women’s Rights Watch (WRW), a non-governmental organisation, argues that though women performed multiple roles as mothers, wives and home managers, they lack access to finance.

The World Bank country director for Nigeria, Mark Tomlinson and his IMF counterpart, Manga Kuoh, have called on Nigeria to integrate the voice of the poor into the country’s anti-poverty policy.

In a joint paper, entitled “Towards Faster Poverty Reduction,” the two envoys say: “While some countries have made tremendous strides in reducing poverty through assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it is clear that poverty has not been reduced fast enough in many others. And sadly in some countries poverty is still increasing.”