By Abdulfatah Babatunde
A Think-Tank, Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), has called on the media to sensitise and encourage Nigerian citizens to update or register for BVN and NIN to enable them to benefit from various government’s social security programmes unfolding.
IMPI Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju, made the call announced this at a press conference organised, on Monday, in Abuja.
Akinsiju recalled that President Bola Tinubu, on assumption in office introduced some reforms. These included the fuel subsidy removal, harmonisation of the foreign exchange market among others.
He noted with delight, the extension of payment of Social Security to graduates from tertiary institutions. This is with a commitment of N100 billion by the President.
And the approval of the Social Security Unemployment Programme to alleviate economic difficulties for unemployed youths.
“These are part of the actions and decisions of the administration.”
“We, therefore, call on the media to sensitise and encourage our citizens across the federation to register for BVN and NIN. This is to enable them to benefit from the government’s social security programmes.
“The government has taken the economy a notch higher with the introduction of the Consumer Credit Scheme. This is known as The Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CrediCorp).
“CrediCorp has the potential to improve consumption capacity for Nigerians, resulting in expanded productivity for the manufacturing sector.
“This implies that citizens do not need to wait until they have saved so much to buy what you desire.”
The chairman remarked that as the government continues to introduce legacy reforms, Nigeria’s economy has begun to record positive impacts.
“These are evident under initiatives of consumer credit, social security and student loan schemes to ease the burden of citizens.
“The government has also embarked on reduction in cost of governance through the implementation of the presidential embargo on foreign trips by government officials.”
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Painful as the government’s decision on petrol subsidy and forex has been, IMPI said the economy had responded positively.
It returned an impressive 3.4 per cent growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 4th Quarter of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s February report.
“This confirms our earlier claims and projections that the economy was responding positively to the reforms of this administration.
“We also projected that Nigerians will soon begin to reap the harvest of their sacrifice.
“These will come through affordable cost of living, job-creating economy, access to quality education, affordable health and transport services.’’
IMPI leader said findings indicated that President Tinubu’s economy had saved an average of N1 trillion monthly from the withdrawal of petrol subsidy since June 2023.
“The President has made good his commitment to ensuring that no qualified Nigerian is denied access to higher education. He demonstrated this by signing the bill establishing the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) into law.
“The extension to this is that the Federal Ministry of Education has announced a policy to increase admission spaces for critical academic and professional courses in tertiary educational institutions that are in high demand domestically and internationally.
“This policy will bridge domestic gaps created by the egression of trained academics and professionals.
“We envisage that when this policy implementation is fully evolved, Nigeria may be a net exporter of skilled manpower to the world with positive implications for diaspora remittances and technology transfer,’’ Akinsiju said.
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