Poverty, youth unemployment drive insecurity – Buhari

The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has identified poverty and youth unemployment as the twin drivers of insecurity in the most populous black nation.

Buhari disclosed this in his Democracy Day speech on Saturday.

Issues surrounding the nation’s economy, constitutional reform, security, among others, formed part of the President’s national broadcast.

“We are, at the same time, addressing the twin underlying drivers of insecurity namely poverty and youth unemployment,” he said.

Buhari, who came to power after winning the 2015 presidential election, had promised to tackle corruption, insecurity and the economy.

Nigerian economy is now projected to grow at a modest rate in 2021 and output not to return to its 2019 level until 2023, according to World Bank’s recent report.

Addressing aggrieved Nigerians on Saturday, Buhari said his administration had over the past six years focused on growing the nation’s economy.

He said the fiscal and monetary interventions had been targeted mostly at the agricultural services, infrastructure, power and healthcare sectors of the economy.

“In the agriculture sector, for instance, the Anchor Borrowers Programme resulted in sharp decline in the nation’s major food import bill from $2.23bn in 2014 to $590m by the end of 2018. Rice import bill alone dropped from $1bn to $18.5m yearly.”

“In the manufacturing sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria and Bank of Industry have disbursed N200bn for the establishment and operation of 60 new industrial hubs across the country, creating an estimated 890,000 direct and indirect jobs,” he added.

He said the Economic Sustainability Plan for the Coronavirus Disease, which primarily focused on the non-oil sector, has contributed over 90 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product growth in Q1 2021.

The President also said that over 32.6 million citizens were already benefiting from the National Social Investment Programme.

The Federal Government now has a National Social Register of poor and vulnerable households, identified across 708 local councils, 8,723 wards and 86,610 communities in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

“Our Conditional Cash Transfer programme has benefited over 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households comprising more than eight million individuals. This provides a monthly stipend of N10,000 per household.

“I also recently approved the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy Plan that augments existing plans to further reduce poverty in Nigeria,” the President stated.

According to Buhari, at the end of 2020, the Development Bank of Nigeria had disbursed N324bn in loans to more than 136,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, 57 per cent of which beneficiaries are women while 27 per cent are youths.

“We are able to do all these and still accelerate our infrastructure development through sensible and transparent borrowing, improved capital inflow, improving and increasing revenue through capturing more tax bases and prudent management of investment proceeds in the Sovereign Wealth Fund,” he explained.

He added that under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos–Ibadan Expressway and the Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria–Kano Expressway were on course.

“I have also approved the establishment of Infraco Plc, a world-class infrastructure development vehicle wholly focused on Nigeria with a capital structure of N15tn,” he said.

Buhari, who has just two years to leave the office, said he also approved four new seaports, using a Public-Private Partnership approach, to grow the Nigerian economy.

The seaports, Lekki Deep Sea Port, Bonny Deep Sea Port, Ibom Deep Sea Port and Warri Deep Sea port, are expected to create jobs and improve foreign investment inflows.

“We have worked at deepening our eastern ports leading to success like having three container ships berth at Calabar port, the first in 11 years. Similarly, on October 30, 2019, an LPG tanker operated by Nigeria LNG berthed in Port Harcourt, the first time an LPG ship is berthing at any of the eastern ports.

His words, “As we invest in these new assets, we have also made strides in ensuring that they are secure and protected. In this regard, I am also pleased to note the launch of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Deep Blue project – an Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure that I recently commissioned. This initiative is designed to add to the layer of security we have to safeguard our maritime sector.”

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