Revisiting Nigeria’s Poverty Alleviation Programmes, By Bello Shehu Maude
Democratic Era (Post-SAP)
During the democratic era, governments also designed and implemented various programmes and strategies to alleviate poverty. The efforts included considerable institutional changes such as the merging of previously disparate but complementary development organizations. For instance, the Bank of Industry (BOI) was constituted in 2000 to serve as the primary lending financial institution for industries in Nigeria. It was created from the merging of the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB), and Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI).
In the agricultural sector, the Nigerian Agricultural, Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) was set up from the Family Economic Advancement Program (FEAP), the Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank, and the People’s Bank, with the mandate to provide funds for industrial inputs.
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and Seven Point Agenda, Sure-P and N-SIP were among the strategies initiated to reduce the high rate of poverty during this era.
The National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP)
NAPEP was established in 2000 to take over from the failed Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP). The document title National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) provides strategies for the eradication of absolute poverty and rationalization of existing poverty alleviation institutions and coordinated implementation and monitoring of four schemes and programmes at all levels of government; the Youth Empowerment Schemes (YES) which deals with capacity acquisition, mandatory attachment, production improvement, credit delivery, technology development. Rural Infrastructure Development Schemes (RIDS) mandated to take care of energy and power supply. Social Welfare Services Schemes (SOWESS) that deals with special education, primary health care services, establishment and maintenance of recreation centres, public awareness, facilities, youth and student hostels development, environmental protection facilities, food security, provision of agricultural inputs micro and macro credits delivery, rural telecommunication facilities, provision of mass transit and maintenance culture; and lastly National Resources Development and Conservation Schemes (NRDCS) that deals with the harnessing of the agricultural, water, solid mineral resources, conservation of land and space particularly for the convenient and effective utilization by small-scale operators and the immediate community (Stanley and Endurance 2010).
Under its Capacity Acquisition Programme (CAP), it trained 100,000 unemployed youths just as 5,000 others who received training as tailors and fashion designers were resettled. A total of 50, 000 unemployed graduates have also benefited from NAPEP’s Mandatory Attachment Programme, which is also an aspect of CAP. The programme has established a databank of all unemployed youths in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). About 1.1 million youths were historically registered by the programme.
However, when a cooperative society or women groups are required for purpose of microcredits, powerful clique hijacked the programmes and quickly presents names of their families, friends and followers as members of such groups to replace of the main beneficiaries. Infact, the programme ends in monumental fraud
The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)
Also worth mentioning is the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) described as a medium term strategy aimed to provide 7 million new jobs. The key elements of this development strategy included poverty eradication, employment generation, wealth creation and value reorientation. NEEDS provided help to agriculture, industry, small and medium scale enterprises and oil and gas.
The programme was Nigeria’s homegrown poverty reduction strategy (PRSP). It was a medium term strategy (2003-07) which derived from the country’s long-term goals of poverty reduction, wealth creation, employment generation and value re-orientation. NEEDS was a nationally coordinated framework of action in close collaboration with the State and Local governments (with their State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, SEEDS) and other stakeholders to consolidate on the achievements of the 1999- 2003 democratic dispensation (World Bank, 2010). The implementation of NEEDS rests on four major strategies. First, it aims at reforming government and institutions by fighting corruption, ensuring transparency and promoting rule of law and strict enforcement of contracts.
Another strategy is to grow the private sector as the engine of growth and wealth creation, employment generation and poverty reduction. Third, it seeks to implement a social charter with emphasis on people’s welfare, health, education, employment, poverty reduction, empowerment, security, and participation. The fourth key strategy is value reorientation.
Despite the novel and applauded aims and intents of the NEEDS policy, its achievement remains short of expectation and questionable. Judging by the professed objectives of NEEDS which are employment generation, poverty eradication, wealth creation and value reorientation, it is clear to state that, the policy did not achieve its mandate in any significant measure or in the medium term. If anything, the impact has not been evident on the general well-being of Nigerians. Thus, the expiration of the NEEDS policy plan left most Nigerians in poverty rather than out of it as it was one of the policies’ thrust.
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), the economic development blueprint, developed by Obasanjo’s regime, had influenced the creation of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua 7-Point Agenda;
Seven-Point Agenda of Development
The Seven-Point Agenda is an articulation of policy priorities to strengthen the reforms and build the economy, so that the gains of the reforms are felt widely by citizens across the country. In October 2008, Yar’Adua said he remained committed to eradicating ‘any form of poverty and other related effects in Nigeria.
The main objectives and principles of the agenda included improving the general well-being of Nigerians and making the country to become one of the biggest economies in the world by the year 2020. The agenda has critical infrastructure as the first key area of focus. This includes power, transportation, national gas distribution and telecommunication. The second focus is to address the existing issues in the Niger Delta and national security. Food Security constitutes the third priority area. The fourth area is human capital development and the land tenure reform is the fifth key area. The sixth key area is education while the seventh area focuses on poverty alleviation and wealth creation.
All of his agenda just appeared on the pages of newspapers; however, they were not fully realized due to pre-matured death of Yar’Adua Presidency on May 5, 2010 after a long protracted illness.
Although the Seven-Point Agenda appears to have a broad coverage to address the various development challenges facing the country, it has been widely criticized by development experts. The wide ambit of the program may not allow for proper monitoring and effective implementation. Again resource constraints hampered the capacity of the government to productively address the wide areas covered by the program.
Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P)
On January 1, 2012, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the removal of subsidy on petrol, it was the most unexpected New Year gift to the citizens. Thus, protests and anger greeted the pronouncement the following day. This led to the introduction of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the government’s ‘solution’ to fast track development in answer to subsidy removal or reduction. Therefore, SURE-P is focused on utilisation of the Federal Government’s share from the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy by channelling it into a combination of programmes to stimulate the economy and alleviate poverty through critical infrastructure and safety net projects.
In summary, SURE-P was introduced to firstly mitigate the immediate impact of the petroleum subsidy on the population, but particularly the poor and vulnerable segments. Secondly to accelerate economic transformation through investments in critical infrastructure projects, so as to drive economic growth and achieve the Vision 20:2020., and thirdly to lay a foundation for the successful development of a national safety net programme that is better targeted at the poor and the most vulnerable on a continuous basis.
About N180 billion of the subsidy funds was spent on some capital projects in 2012 with N179 billion for capital projects and N1 billion service wide vote for the SURE-P Programme board.
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Unfortunately for the SURE-P, the absence of thorough studies and forecasts before adoption made it to be lacking in merit in terms of mitigation strategies. The review found that factors that have cut across all subsidy withdrawal or reduction regimes across the world have been communications, consultation and transparency which are clearly lacking in SURE-P and this poses a great challenge to the government of the day because winning the trust of the people may be difficult.
By 2013, poverty in the country had become so serious that about 70 per cent of the population were said to be living below the poverty line.
Temitope (2020) argued the outcome of Sure-P to be complete failure because the money set aside to finance the programme was siphoned by the government officials.
Sadly enough, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would later arraign some government officials for the alleged looting of SURE-P funds.
For instance, the anti-graft agency arraigned then Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Clement Onubuogo, for allegedly diverting N664m from the funds voted to the SURE-P scheme by the Jonathan government. (see Premium Times, 2018).
The EFCC also separately arraigned a former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, and two of his former aides for alleged of N9.79bn from the SURE-P scheme and Police Reform Programme. (see The PUNCH, 2018)
Muhammadu Buhari Administration
The present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari lunched his poverty alleviation programme in 2016 popularly known as National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP).
National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP)
In recognition of the fact that many Nigerian poor do not have access to credit, the Federal Government in 2016 introduced National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) as a way of checking poverty incrementally and put money in the hand of poorest via micro-credit scheme aim at improving petty traders.
The main thrusts of the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) are: National Home Grown School Feeding (NHGSF) Programme Aims to provide free nutritional meal for public primary school pupils across Nigeria.
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme (popularly known as TraderMoni) Aims to address poverty in the country by providing cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable households through a conditional cash transfer of N5, 000 monthly per household through household caregivers.
N-Power (Job Creation) Programme Aims to help young Nigerians (both unemployed graduates and non-graduates) acquire and develop life-long skills to become solution providers in their communities, and players in domestic and global markets (Ministry of Budget and National Planning, December 2016). The N-Power beneficiaries are receiving N30, 000 as monthly stipend which turned to Political Office holders avenue to secure and manipulate slots for their sycophants to hold them accountable and dependants for further loyalty against their opponents.
The program has inconsistency in selecting the most suitable candidate to participate as some of selected individuals are receiving double alert from Federal Government and other Private Organisation, hence making them not showing in their place of primary assignment unless they heard the rumour of visitation of Supervisor.
There is also the Conditional Cash Transfer programme which directly supports the most vulnerable by providing no-strings-attached cash to those in the lowest income group, helping to reduce poverty, improve nutrition and self-sustainability, and supporting development through increased consumption.
The existence of micro-lending investment programme targeting entrepreneurs with a focus on young people and women namely Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) which provides cost-free loans to beneficiaries, helping to reduce business start-up costs is part of N-SIP.
Also TraderMoni, an arm of GEEP, was designed to provide small loans without collateral to small-scale traders or artisans that may not be able to access loans or credit through banks and traditional financial institutions. The two other arms of the GEEP were MarketMoni and FarmerMoni, targeted at market women and farmers, respectively. These were to improve the traders’ standards of living by expanding their businesses.
The TraderMoni scheme was designed to enable self-employed individuals who lack collateral access loans with ease, thereby reducing their vulnerability to risks. For TraderMoni, the amount given ranges from N10, 000 to N300, 000, whereby the beneficiary, on repayment of the first N10, 000, qualifies for a higher loan amount till it gets to the N300, 000. Unfortunately the above collateral access loans seen by many Nigerian as indirectly vote buying implemented only when the election is approaching, hence many who received the loan hardly use it wisely to invest for sustainable wealth creation and subsequent repayment of the loan. A lot of Nigerians who received the loan use it in parallel way of the objectivity of the loan.
Finally, under this office is the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, geared towards increasing school enrollment by providing meals to schoolchildren, particularly those in poor and food-insecure regions. The programme works with local farmers and empowers women as cooks, building the community and sustaining economic growth from farm to table.
Also, the economic hardship brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration commenced the payment of N5, 000 monthly stipends, targeted at supporting one million of the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians under social investment scheme. As of March 2021, the sum was said to have increased to N20, 000.
But what perhaps has left many grasping was that despite these social intervention programmes, more Nigerians have been out of job, poverty is on the increase, many children are out of school because their parents could hardly feed them, let alone pay their tuition even in the perceived free education scheme. There are more jobless graduates than ever. More workers are being owed salaries. The price of food and commodities are very high. Many have gone into the dreaded field of robbery, kidnapping and money rituals while some who could not embrace such evil have taken to suicide as an alternative.
Commenting and recommending on the Poverty rates and a lot of programmes implemented by Nigerian Government experts like Prof Isaac Obasi, a professor of Public Policy and Industrial Relations in the Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja argued that It is true that there are many poverty alleviation programmes and schemes, but the truth also is that they are not deep-rooted and life-changing in nature because of a combination of illiteracy, poor education and lack of good jobs for those who are educated.
He holds the opinion that you can only lift people out of poverty through a multi-dimensional approach. There is a need for a paradigm shift with regards to the government’s idea perception and definition of what constitutes sustainable employment or life-changing employment. It is such employment that lifts people out of poverty, not the short-term employment programmes.
Professor, Maishanu Malami, of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, described the programmes as only temporary and cosmetic.
He said, ‘On a temporary basis, they do help, temporarily, but on a sustainable basis, no. I don’t think those things can take people out of poverty, because poverty is not something that you can miraculously change its direction overnight. It is based on a consistent framework which is being done from the grass roots’.
Maishanu further said, ‘One would expect that if the government is truly interested in alleviating poverty, they should institute some frameworks, by tackling some of the major problems that contribute to poverty’.
He argued that, with stable electricity and low exchange rate many Nigerians could creatively pull themselves out of poverty.
A Professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Felix Onah, the question to ask is if Nigerians feel safe enough to come out to fend for themselves. He therefore urged the Federal Government to secure the lives of citizens.
He added, ‘Are Nigerians secure enough to come out of their houses in the morning to fend for themselves, before we talk about poverty reduction? You cannot reduce poverty when you cannot come out to look for your means of livelihood. So, first of all, let the Federal Government make the country safe so people can go out and fend for themselves’.
Temitope of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria asserts that Poverty in Nigeria can be reduce to a minimal level if the various poverty alleviation programme can be handle with sincerity and practice of good governance during the implementation”
Hamisu, Shishi and Sunny (2019) suggest that the federal government should establish a ministry or agency with the objective of harmonization of all the existing poverty alleviation related programs in the country. This would ensure that successive government does not discard their predecessors program, rather, add their own intervention under the same umbrella so as to make sure that all target audiences are reached.
Bello Shehu Maude is a Public Policy Analyst, Developmental Journalist and SDG Ambassador. He writes from Kano.
Arewa Agenda is a Publication of Young writers/journalist from Northern Nigeria towards Peaceful Coexistence and National Development through positive narratives
