New Petrol Price: Buhari Unveils Palliative Measures

New Petrol Price: Buhari Unveils Palliative Measures

The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Laolu Akande has released a statement unveiling a social investment package designed to better the lives of over eight (8) million Nigerians.

He explained that some parts of the package will be operational in the coming weeks.

The statement reads in part:

The Buhari presidency is keen to ensure that Nigerians are lifted and that if necessary on an ongoing basis, palliatives measures would always been considered to address the conditions of the people.

Long before now, the presidency has made adequate arrangements in the 2016 budget to ensure that Nigerians are lifted from poverty and hardship.

Altogether the federal government would be directly impacting the lives of more than 8 million Nigerians in different social investment 2016 budget spending that would provide succor and be a ready-made palliative to ordinary Nigerians.

The direct payment of N5000 monthly to one million extremely poor Nigerians for 12 months as provided for in the 2016 budget for which N$68.7B has been appropriated.

The government has also made available a direct provision of very soft loan -cash for market women, men and traders, including artisans and agric workers. This would be for a total of 1.76m Nigerians, without the requirement for conventional collateral.

Some of the traders will likely get about N60,000. A total sum of N140.3B has already been appropriated for this in the budget. The details also showed that there would be payment of between N23,000 to N30,000 per month to 500,000 unemployed graduates who would be trained, paid and deployed to work as volunteer teachers, public health officers and extension service workers among other responsibilities.

They would also be given electronic devices to empower them technologically both for their assignments and beyond. 100,000 artisans would also be trained and paid N191.5B has been set aside for this in the passed budget.

At least 5.5 million Nigerian primary school children -ie starting first in 18 states-three per geopolitical zones-would be fed for 200 school days under the free Homegrown School Feeding Programme. N93.1B has been appropriated for this in the 2016 budget.

In this same vein, 100,000 tertiary students in Science Technology Engineering & Maths-STEM, plus Education will partake in the N5.8B already provided for this education grant in the budget. This payment would also be paid directly to the students.

Akande assured Nigerians that this will pacify the current challenges Nigerians are facing, especially in line with the new petrol price regime. Also, jobs will be created by the infrastructural projects that would be restored and new ones taking off soon.

Nigerians have since been unhappy with the announcement of the new price regime, where fuel is now selling for N145 per litre, and have been asking for balance, especially an upward review of the N18,000 minimum wage.