▪To reduce the cost of governance
The National Economic Council (NEC), presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima, has dumped the National Social Register, one of Muhammadu Buhari administration’s responses to poverty, for lack of integrity.
The Council instead proposed implementing a cash transfer programmes for states based on their social registers and a cash reward policy for public servants for six months.
This was disclosed at the briefing of State House Correspondents at the end of the over five hours meeting by governors of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, Bauchi, Bala Mohammed and Ogun, Dapo Abiodun.
According to Soludo, NEC resolved that the states should come up with their own registers using formal and informal means to develop it.
He said that all beneficiaries at the subnational level could easily be accessed that way.
“We need to face the problem of the fact that we don’t have a credible register,” he said.
Soludo affirmed that NEC deliberated on ways to cushion the impact of the recent petroleum subsidy removal.
The council also emphasised the importance of paying outstanding liabilities of public servants, including pensions and gratuities, to alleviate their hardships.
Council also agreed that government would focus on funding Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with single-digit interest rates to support business growth.
They also agreed to the immediate implementation of the Energy Transition Plan as discussed, focusing on transitioning to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for mass transit vehicles to reduce reliance on petrol.
The council stated that government aimed to set up manufacturing and assembly plants for electric vehicles (EVs) in each zone in the country in the long term, but in the meantime, they encouraged the conversion to CNG to create employment and reduce petrol dependency.
The council was also said to have also addressed food security and food price escalation by allocating buffer stocks of grains for distribution to states, which they can choose to sell them at a subsidised rate or distribute them for free to ease the burden on citizens.
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