Poverty alleviation: FG to supply 2000 buses to Cooperative societies

The Federal Government is working out the modalities to supply 2000 buses to Cooperative Societies in Nigeria as part of the efforts to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

The scheme is jointly carried out by the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Federal Department of Cooperatives) and CFAO Motors.

Speaking at the Inter-Ministerial Stakeholders Meeting on the supply in Abuja on Monday, Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, George Akume said the move was to
tackle the issue of poverty eradication from a wealth creation approach using the platform of Cooperative Societies in Nigeria.

Akume explained that the distribution and deployment of 2000 Buses (being the first tranche) will go a long way in ensuring that jobs are not only created but that an enabling environment for wealth creation is also engendered with the eventual acquisition and ownership of these vehicles by the members of the cooperative societies.

He said: “The approach we propose to adopt and undertake with the utilization of cooperative societies as an outcome of this meeting sets it apart from but also complements the other measures being adopted by government to tackle and eradicate poverty.

“The utilization of the Cooperative societies as the preferred platform for driving this initiative arises from the fact that they are spread evenly along the length and breadth of the country and have a wider reach in terms of its membership.

“Furthermore cooperatives societies are organised, regulated and offer cross-guarantees within its membership and thus ensures that the important attributes of transparency and accountability, trust and social capital associated with cooperatives societies provides sufficient safeguards for the supply of these vehicles to its members”.

The Minister reiterated that the alleviation of poverty in Nigeria has been and always remains a cardinal agenda of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The need to tackle and eradicate poverty has become even more accentuated in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its devastating effect on the world economy generally as well the difficulties encountered by the recent deregulation of the downstream sector which is aimed at putting the economy on sound footing.

“Therefore there is an urgent need to act timeously so as to cushion the effects of these hardships on the general populace. Already, many Presidential initiatives have been put in place to ameliorate the adverse effects of the pandemic.

“It is in line with this key Agenda of Mr. President that the idea of convening an inter-ministerial meeting with other Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as Organised Private sector and Civil Society Organizations to collaborate towards the achievement of this key agenda was birthed”, Akume noted.