Ahead of the commencement of the Buhari administration’s unprecedented infusion of half a trillion naira in social investment towards achieving a comprehensive safety net for poor and ordinary Nigerians, significant local and international support for the scheme is growing.

According to a federal government source, three banks, Stanbic, Access, and , have offered to do BVN registration for recipients of the conditional cash transfer scheme free of charge.

The scheme is meant to pay N5,000 monthly to one million poor and vulnerable Nigerians, with N$68.7 billion allocated to this in the 2016 budget.

The source also disclosed that nine states of the federation had also indicated active interest in working with the federal government on the Homegrown School Feeding where about 5.5million primary school pupils all across the country would be served one meal a day for about 200 days in every school year.

He further explained that some of the states that had already reached out to the federal government to actively support the school feeding scheme are Enugu, Abia, Kaduna, Borno, Oyo, Osun and Ogun.

In some of those states, the presidential aides coordinating the programme are already establishing structures and building capacities to implement the scheme.

The source said, “State governments have generally expressed support, but these states mentioned above have become the most active in ensuring the Buhari administration’s free feeding scheme takes off soon, smoothly and possibly earlier in their states.

“In Kaduna and Osun, actual feeding has commenced while it is expected to take off between next month – June and July – in Enugu, Oyo, Ogun and Borno.

The sources noted that the federal government plans to spend an average of N70 per meal for this programme, adding that the scheme had also received the support of the Imperial College, UK, whose PCD arm has sent expert staff to support the government.

CEOAFRICA source learnt that the UK university had carried out similar projects in a number of developing countries around the world.

“Nigeria’s Bank of Industry is also said to be supporting the micro-credit empowerment and enterprise programme which would give out very soft loans to about 1.7million Nigerians.

“Although the bank would not be using its funds since the federal government has made available a sum of N140.3 billion in the 2016 budget for the micro-credit scheme, the bank, nonetheless, is said to be ready to kick-off the scheme with its own funds in order to ensure speedy implementation while awaiting the release of the funds from government coffers.”

Under the micro-credit scheme, he said,  there would be the direct provision of very soft loans with very low interest, no more than three per cent to cover finance costs, to market women, men and traders, including artisans and agric workers.

According to him, the loans shall be without the requirement for conventional collateral and some of the beneficiaries will get about N60, 000 and a maximum of N100, 000.

He also pointed out that private firms had also been supporting some of the social investment programmes in the area of ICT infrastructure free of charge.

“For instance, FCMB is providing support to build the internet portal for the Homegrown School Feeding while Career Intelligence, a human resource firm in Abuja, is doing same for the job creation aspects of the social investment programmes, including the 500,000 volunteer teacher corps.

“The World Bank has also been supporting the Conditional Cash Transfer especially since the bank had been compiling a social register in some states previously. While the bank is also said to be offering some form of additional financial grants for the programme, both the presidency and the bank have now completed the social register of the poor and vulnerable in eight states. The states are Bauchi, Cross River, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Osun, Oyo and Niger.

A source said the register in Borno is also expected to be completed soon.

He noted that as part of the compilation of the social register, a grievance and redress procedure is said to have been included along with a call centre where people can phone in to make observations and raise objections to the way cash transfer scheme is administered.

On its part, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also supporting the schemes by offering to design effective electronic payment systems that will ensure that payments are made directly to the beneficiaries – as the presidency has insisted, during the implementation phase of the scheme.

“In all, the entire social investment programmes have actually received the broad support of most state governors, and a meeting was held recently where representatives of 35 states met in Aso Rock to discuss modalities,” he stated.