The Federal Government of Nigeria has commenced the distribution of N20,000 grants to vulnerable citizens in Kogi State through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, clarified on Tuesday, during the launch of the grant distribution to the beneficiaries, that the financial assistance is not a loan and does not require repayment.
According to her, the fund which distribution had commenced earlier in other parts of the country, is expected to boost the beneficiaries’ businesses and help them in whatever they do.
Edu reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to seeing millions of Nigerians pulled out of poverty.
“The President is committed to seeing that he pulls Nigerians out of poverty. He has placed a demand on himself and his team that a minimum of 50 million Nigerians be out of poverty.
“To achieve this, the president set up a team to identify the poorest of our people and came up with a series of programmes that will improve the economy of the common man.
“Today in Kogi State, we are officially flagging off the grant for vulnerable groups in Kogi State. It is a Kickstarter, and it should be used the right way. This is intended to boost your business, and it is expected that it will help in whatever you are doing,” the minister said.
In his remark at the launch of the programme, Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, commended President Tinubu for alleviating poverty and eradicating hunger in the country.
The governor described Tinubu as a humanitarian with the common man’s interests at heart.
“I appreciate the President because apart from the ones we did as announced by Commissioner for Finance, we were planning on how to do more and empower them when the President empowered the Humanitarian Affairs Minister and mandated her to run programs that is benefiting all.
“We need to key in properly into this program and to be able to key in properly, we must have the Ministry and Agency that will be relating with the Mother agency properly. By the special grace of God, I hereby create the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Kogi State.
“We will also transmit a bill for the creation of Kogi State Social Investment Agency to the House of Assembly alongside the budget of 2024,” ThisDay quoted Bello saying.
In their separate remarks, the Head of Service and Commissioner for Finance, Hannah Odiyo and Mukadam Asiwaju Idris, applauded the Poverty Eradication initiatives of the President Tinubu-led administration for looking inward and having the people of Kogi State in their minds.
They expressed confidence that Kogi State will continually benefit from all the poverty reduction programs of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Government.
