The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the setting up of the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Fund with the hope of raising $5 billion yearly for emergency responses to humanitarian crises.
FEC approves $3.45 billion loan
This is as the Council also approved a $3.45 billion loan for various projects, including Girl Child Education, amongst others.
Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, disclosed this on Monday, shortly after the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
Edun revealed that the sum of $7 million has been set aside to finance adolescent girl child education and empowerment under an additional women’s project for the country.
Speaking on the memos he presented for approval at FEC, the Minister stated that the project is about “empowering women, upscaling their skills levels, and of course, giving them some financial inclusion, including in the banking system.”
Asked how much it would take to implement the adolescent education, he added: “Essentially, financing or fundraising counterparty in transactions with World Bank, ministry of education as the implementer, I think is a question of ‘the more the merrier,’ I think you’ll agree with me that we can’t have too much financing for education for adolescent girls, for women generally. Financing for the girl child; $700 million is the size of the current project.”
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On the other approvals, Edun stated: “They were to do with concessional and in many cases zero-interest financing by the World Bank and the International Development Association, which is the very concessional financing arm.
“The projects that were approved for funding were in the power sector and then the renewable energy sector. There was funding for states for resource mobilisation programmes to help them with their internally generated revenue efforts.
“There was a project for adolescent girls’ initiative for learning and empowerment; essentially, as it says, it’s a programme to support young girls from the age of 11 to secondary school age and to ensure that at the end of their schooling, they have one skill or the other that is marketable, as well as academic laurels.
“So those were five loans totaling $3.45 billion. As you know, the tenure is all around 40 years, with a moratorium period of around 10 years, and interest is very low, or in the case of either loan, zero interest, although some fees would be incurred.
To inaugurate the National Council on Procurement
The federal government also said on Monday that it has set up plans to enforce the 2007 Procurement Act, 16 years after it was first signed into law, to enable the National Council on Procurement to exercise its powers under the Act.
Mamman Tahir, Minister of Education, stated this while briefing State House Journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
The decision comes on the heels of earlier reports by BusinessDay Media that revealed how the Bureau of Public Procurement( BPP) had failed to check sharp practises in public procurement.
The Minister said the “federal executive Council is aware that members of the public have always complained about the Council being a contract-awarding institution
“Today the Council took a very major decision to review policy in that direction. So the Public Procurement Act is brought into practise as it is for the handling of projects and government activities in Nigeria.
He revealed that the Council has begun a review of the policy. According to him, “so that the Public Procurement Council can exercise its powers under that act and then the council will now concentrate on issues of national importance, on issues of policy, so I thought these are some of the things that are worthy of note.”
Bette Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, stated that the money would be raised from the government, contributions from development partners, the private sector, and individuals, among others.
According to her, the fund, which will be a form of flexible financing, would allow for emergency responses to humanitarian crises in the country.
“Again, we are grateful to President Bola Tinubu today for the approval given for the creation of the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trusts Fund.
“This is a flexible form of financing that can help us get contributions from different sectors. So we’re going to have contributions from the government, from the private sector, development partners, individuals, philanthropic individuals, and other innovative forms of crowd-funding and pooling of funds together. This is to allow for an emergency response to a humanitarian crisis in Nigeria.
“Every other day we hear about the crisis, the floods, and the rest of it. We need to be able to respond adequately as a country. Beyond this, the issue of poverty alleviation is on the agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 8-point agenda, and we want to be able to tackle it headlong.
“How much are we looking at? Every year, we hope to be able to raise at least $5 billion within this fund, and this is from the various sources that I’ve mentioned and even more. We are hopeful that with the creation of this funding, we can sit down with all the key stakeholders, including other ministries, and actually work out the full modality of implementation in Nigeria.”
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Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Mineral Development, disclosed that the FEC approved a new draft policy that would provide the teeth to regulate the sector and tackle illegal miners who, he said, are sponsoring banditry.
He said a review of policy became necessary because of the need to tap solid mineral resources for diversification of the economy as crude oil would go extinct, leaving the country in dire straits.
Alake noted that the clamour for climate change mitigation and green energy solutions, among other emerging innovations, have all combined to reduce the value of oil in the international market.
He explained: “Of course, oil is still sold. However, the trend is going down. So, if we are not careful and if we do not make conscious efforts to diversify, in a couple of years, Nigeria will find itself in economic dire straits, and if we have an abundance of solid mineral resources, why shouldn’t we diversify, concentrate, and exploit judiciously, proficiently, and efficiently these God-given abundance resources?
“This, in essence, encapsulates the policy decision that the Federal Executive Council approved. It’s a draft policy on the entire solid mineral sector, covering the gamut of oil activities, operations, guidelines, regulatory framework, handling, sourcing, mining, and everything that has to do with all the dynamics in the sector.
“This policy approval today that we got from the Federal Executive Council now gives us in the ministry the teeth that we wanted to be able to act with precision on all of those things that we have marked up, especially in terms of security.
“You’re also quite aware of illegal mining activities all over the country, both high and low. I say that with a sense of responsibility. The artisanal, so-called literal miners, who just dig gold everywhere without licences are so-called illegal miners. We also have the high school involved in this game.
“So, we are re-jigging the security architecture. We are involving the inter-security agency structure to ensure that we combat this menace. These and other measures were part of the policy that the federal executive council approved today.
“In essence, it gives the solid mineral ministry power to act on all issues pertaining to the regulation, management, and operation of all the solid minerals sector, sanitising the environment, making it investor-friendly, ensuring the security and stability of investment, and, of course, giving us a lot of attractions to both local and foreign investors.
“So the operationalization of the solid mineral sector through the approval of today’s policy is being sanitised.”
