No Rift Between Executive and Legislature on 2016 Budget
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, has said there is no disagreement
whatsoever between the Executive and the
Legislature on the 2016 Budget, which has been
passed by the National Assembly.
''There is absolutely no rift, no issue of budget
being sent back. Things are just taking their due
course,'' the Minister said in Abuja on Thursday
when he visited the corporate headquarters of
the Leadership newspaper, as part of his
continuous engagement with stakeholders in the
media industry.
He said it was not true that the President has
refused to sign the Appropriation Bill passed by
the National Assembly, adding: ''It takes a few
days (after the passage) for the National
Assembly to clean up the document in readiness
for the President's assent.''
Speaking further on the budget, Alhaji
Mohammed said when it is eventually passed into
law, it will lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty,
thanks to the six focal areas of social intervention
contained therein.
“The first is the employment of 500,000
unemployed university graduates who we are
going to train as teachers. Two, we are also
employing 370,000 unemployed non-graduates,
people with National Diploma and Technical
Certificate. The third tranche is the social
intervention targeted at 1 million people made up
of market women, traders and artisans to be
trained and given loans through their
cooperatives.
“The fourth one is the home-grown One-Meal-A-
Day Programme. Here we are targeting several
millions of pupils in primary schools all over
Nigeria. The exponential effect of this one meal a
day is huge. Even if we are targeting five million
pupils and we are giving each of them one egg a
day, you are talking about five million eggs that
will be provided by our poultry farmers. This will
also help to increase the demand for maize and
then you are going to employ people all around,”
he said.
The Minister further disclosed that the Federal
Government will also commence the Conditional
Cash Transfer to the most vulnerable Nigerians, in
collaboration with some development partners,
to bring succour to such people.
He said that a special bursary scheme will also
come on stream to grant scholarships to students
of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics in a deliberate effort to support the
students financially while also bolstering the
nation’s drive for industrialization.
Alhaji Mohammed also disclosed that the sum of
N350 billion will soon be injected into the
economy to enable contractors to resume work
on abandoned infrastructural projects, with
timeline and target on project delivery and job
creation.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and the
understanding of the challenges facing the
government, saying rather than give excuses, the
government was working round the clock to
alleviate the pains of Nigerians.
Segun Adeyemi
SA to Hon Minister of Information and Culture
Abuja.
Mohammed, has said there is no disagreement
whatsoever between the Executive and the
Legislature on the 2016 Budget, which has been
passed by the National Assembly.
''There is absolutely no rift, no issue of budget
being sent back. Things are just taking their due
course,'' the Minister said in Abuja on Thursday
when he visited the corporate headquarters of
the Leadership newspaper, as part of his
continuous engagement with stakeholders in the
media industry.
He said it was not true that the President has
refused to sign the Appropriation Bill passed by
the National Assembly, adding: ''It takes a few
days (after the passage) for the National
Assembly to clean up the document in readiness
for the President's assent.''
Speaking further on the budget, Alhaji
Mohammed said when it is eventually passed into
law, it will lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty,
thanks to the six focal areas of social intervention
contained therein.
“The first is the employment of 500,000
unemployed university graduates who we are
going to train as teachers. Two, we are also
employing 370,000 unemployed non-graduates,
people with National Diploma and Technical
Certificate. The third tranche is the social
intervention targeted at 1 million people made up
of market women, traders and artisans to be
trained and given loans through their
cooperatives.
“The fourth one is the home-grown One-Meal-A-
Day Programme. Here we are targeting several
millions of pupils in primary schools all over
Nigeria. The exponential effect of this one meal a
day is huge. Even if we are targeting five million
pupils and we are giving each of them one egg a
day, you are talking about five million eggs that
will be provided by our poultry farmers. This will
also help to increase the demand for maize and
then you are going to employ people all around,”
he said.
The Minister further disclosed that the Federal
Government will also commence the Conditional
Cash Transfer to the most vulnerable Nigerians, in
collaboration with some development partners,
to bring succour to such people.
He said that a special bursary scheme will also
come on stream to grant scholarships to students
of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics in a deliberate effort to support the
students financially while also bolstering the
nation’s drive for industrialization.
Alhaji Mohammed also disclosed that the sum of
N350 billion will soon be injected into the
economy to enable contractors to resume work
on abandoned infrastructural projects, with
timeline and target on project delivery and job
creation.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and the
understanding of the challenges facing the
government, saying rather than give excuses, the
government was working round the clock to
alleviate the pains of Nigerians.
Segun Adeyemi
SA to Hon Minister of Information and Culture
Abuja.
Comments
Post a Comment