The Federal Government is putting the sum of N500 billion into wealth creation and poverty alleviation, Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has said.

Osinbajo said this as he participated in the question and answer session of the 58^th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association on Tuesday at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

The theme of the four-day conference is “Transition, Transformation and Sustainable Institutions”

He said that it was in recognition of the menace of poverty that the Federal Government rolled out the National Social Investment Programmes aimed at improving capacity and alleviating poverty.

“We started off in 2016 looking at a budget that was crafted differently; all along if you look at the way we have approached economic policies, it has always been the case of top-down approach.

“So, we look at how to improve industry; how to improve manufacturing; we look at how to give loans to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises.

“The approach we adopted in 2016 was first to create a safety net; so for the first time, we put in the budget a line for what is called NSIP; that is N500 billion for NSIP and that is the largest of its kind in the history of the country.

“The N500 billion covers conditional cash transfer to the poorest; one million of the poorest; we work with the World Bank for special coverage to determine the beneficiaries.’’

He said that the Federal Government targeted 5 million poor people but was hindered by scare resources. (NAN)

– Aug. 28, 2018 @ 17:19 GMT |