Prof. Osinbajo said that a special protection programme
aimed at addressing unemployment will be implemented, according to Channel
Television.
The government has emphasized
the importance of mobilizing domestic revenue to enable significant spending on
social investment to the extent that 10% of the budget is going to be used for
social protection programmes.
These will include training
for 500,000 teachers, micro-credit scheme for 300,000 market women and several
other youth empowerment programmes.
“Our youth employment is very
crucial. We think that for graduate employment, the direct creation of jobs –
the 500,000 teachers – will address some of that concern but for those who are
not graduates, we are looking at investing in that also substantially, told
Channel.
“How we intend to do that is
by this youth employment scheme,” he said.
Investment in infrastructural
development has also been identified as a key component to economic growth and
our correspondent sought to know what kind of attention the Federal Government
was paying to this.
Prof Osinbajo said, “That’s
why we are spending so much money on infrastructure and that’s power. We are
going to spend a lot of money on power. If you look at our whole capital spend
in this (2016) budget, it is directed at ensuring that we are able to improve
the economy significantly.”
With the country’s revenue
profile taking a hit because of the dependence on oil, the VP said that one of
the critical sectors for Nigeria is the agro-allied value chain which the
Buhari administration wants to also improve significantly.
“If you look at rice for
example, we are looking at milling and how we can ensure that there is more
investment in silos storage and also in milling.
“It is important to us that
Agriculture is not a government business and what is crucial is that we create
an environment and bring in private partnership.”
Prof. Osinbajo also
stressed that the cash transfer promised during the
campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was meant for the poorest in the society
and not for the unemployed people, as popularly believed.
