BEING REMARKS BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF STATE, BUDGET AND NATIONAL PLANNING, PRINCE CLEM IKANADE AGBA, AT THE PROJECT INCEPTION MEETING AND OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE SOCIAL PROTECTION MOVEMENT BY AFRICA NETWORK FOR ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN NIGERIA HELD AT VICHI GATE HOTEL, MABUSHI, ABUJA, ON TUESDAY, 23RD MARCH, 2021
“It is therefore in this spirit that support to Social Investment in Nigeria by our development partners and donors are targeted towards what works, which is enhancing poverty reduction and social protection programme in Nigeria. This includes N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Home-Grown School Feeding progrmme, etc.”
I wish to thank the organizers of this meeting for the invitation extended to me as the Special Guest on this auspicious occasion of the inception meeting and launch of the Social Protection movement in Nigeria.
2. Permit me to congratulate Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) on kick- starting the implementation of the “Enhancing Social Protection programme in five States of Nigeria”. I also wish to commend your organization for the initiative and effort at strengthening the advocacy for Social Protection programme in Nigeria. The support of Bread for the World-Protestant Development Services is also highly appreciated.
3. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no better time to strengthen social protection programme in Nigeria than now particularly with our recent experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic that has put the global community including Nigeria on a hot spot to address poverty and vulnerability which are the main objects of social protection programmes.
4. As we may all be aware, social protection systems are at the core of efforts to ensure decent living conditions for the entire population throughout their lives. The proportion of the population covered by social protection floors provides an indication of the extent to which the ideal of the universality of social protection is accomplished as well as how secure the population’s health and living conditions are. Social protection is therefore a key indicator that conveys information on how protected the population is from the various exigencies potentially faced in life.
5. It is because of his firm belief in poverty reduction and social protection that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has, in the cardinal programme of his administration, been specifically committed to the agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next ten years. This is also in line with the decade of action of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which is global agenda to end poverty by the year 2030. All hands are therefore on deck to ensure decent living, devoid of extreme poverty by every Nigerian citizen.
6. It is instructive to note that poverty and social protection are some of the key issues addressed in the Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDPs 2021-2025 & 2026-2030) and the Long-Term Perspective Plan, christened “Nigeria Agenda 2050”, which the Federal Government is facilitating with the private sector in the driver’s seat. These plans will soon be ready for full implementation to stimulate economic growth and development in Nigeria.
7. My Ministry is also coordinating the review of the expired national social protection policy (2017-2020) that will address the issues of poverty and vulnerability at both the national and subnational levels of government. The policy under review has already been presented to the 36 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory for their inputs and advice for the purpose of inclusivity and joint ownership. The process, which is in collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, our international development partners, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-governmental Organizations and all relevant Stakeholders, including Disability Commission has also been subjected to inputs from various groups in the society, including Youth groups and the Academia. A robust Webinar for the general public held via zoom on 16th March, 2021. It is envisaged that the all-inclusive national social protection policy (2021-2025) would be ready in June 2021.
8. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, let me once again appreciate our development partners both multilateral, bilateral and the International Non-Governmental Organisations who have been supporting the development of our dear country to advance the objective of the Global Partnership for Aid effectiveness and ensuring that the delivery of Official Development Assistance to Nigeria is effective. As we may recall, Aid cannot be effective if there is no partnership and despite the fact that the global community is experiencing donor fatigue, our development partners are still striving very hard to strengthen co-operation and collaboration with the government in support of its priority programmes and projects like social protection for poverty reduction in Nigeria.
9. Before now, corruption and macroeconomic instability contributed to the ineffectiveness of aid in Nigeria. This appeared very disappointing and dispiriting. There is however light at the end of the tunnel, as Nigeria under the leadership of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, is committed to ensuring that foreign aid to Nigeria is not only transparently utilized but also determined to turn Nigeria from an aid-recipient country to becoming an aid-donor one. The Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative of the present administration, which I presently Co-Chair is another fitting testimony to our resolve to ensure donor confidence in aid utilization.
10. Furthermore, I wish to re-emphasize that Aid effectiveness is the degree of success or failure of international aid, which is either development aid or humanitarian aid. Increasing the effectiveness of aid means ensuring that aid helps developing countries to improve the welfare of their poorest populations. For this reason, aid must be genuinely focused on development priorities set by any country. At the Second High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2005, it was recognised that aid could – and should – be producing better impacts. The Paris Declaration was endorsed in order to base development efforts on first-hand experience of what works and does not work with aid. It is formulated around five central pillars: Ownership, Alignment, Harmonization, and Managing for Results and Mutual Accountability.
11. It is therefore in this spirit that support to Social Investment in Nigeria by our development partners and donors are targeted towards what works, which is enhancing poverty reduction and social protection programme in Nigeria. This includes N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Home-Grown School Feeding progrmme, etc. We therefore thank our international development partners, including the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice and Bread for the World-Protestant Development Services for bringing us together today and for your efforts in making Aid effective in Nigeria.
12. Finally, distinguished participants, it is my honour to encourage the benefitting States in this programme to adhere to the rules of the delivery of the project, be transparent, learn from implementation arrangements for sustainability purposes so that there will be good outcomes and the provider of the resources for the programme will also have a commendable report on Nigeria which, by extension, will encourage further support to other States after this pilot implementation in five States.
13. While thanking all of you for your attention, I once again appreciate the organisers and the development partners for supporting the programme in Nigeria and wish all of you successful deliberations.
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