The federal government will soon propose a bill to address the issues related to poverty alleviation in the country, the special adviser to the president on Social Investment Programme Maryam Uwais has said.
Uwais, who spoke during an oversight visit by the joint National Assembly committee on poverty alleviation headed by Senator Lawal Yahaya Gumau (APC, Bauchi) and Rep Muhammad Ali Wudil (APC, Kano), said the bill would dwell on how to sustain the achievements made so far.
Responding to a question from a member of the panel, Rep Sidi Karasuwa (APC, Yobe), Uwais said they were still working on the bill in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in the executive arm.
“We feel that we should have a very good team and the same kind of structure with the steering committee. We want to also ask for the state to come up with the same kind of structure. What we need to do is to make it attractive for the states to key into.
“We’ve come up with a draft bill that we’re working on in-house before we come and engage the two chairmen. There are a lot of options that we’re looking at, but we want to look at it first at the executive level before coming to you so that we can sustain the achievements,” she said.
She also told the panel that they currently have over 700,000 people captured under beneficiaries under their programmes, but that they send money to only about 300,000.
“In Kwara State, what we’ve been paying the women in the last three years has been over N15 million. Other states haven’t started, but we’re happy that few states are joining. Lagos state is already joining because I was there yesterday (Monday).
“Right now, we’re in 30 states in the school feeding programme. We’re in about 56,000 schools around the country,” she said, adding that they received assistance from donors such as the World Bank.
Speaking, Wudil said the joint committee would want to see the details of the aides received from the World Bank and other donors.
“Your presentation was very wonderful, but we need to have this kind of updates maybe after every three months because we represent our people.
“Information is critical, and this is one of the best programmes in this government. But a lot of us may not be aware of what’s happening in our constituencies as far as this programme is concerned.
