States share N75bn ESP survival fund

Thirty-six states of the federation have shared a total sum of N75 billion from the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) of the Federal Government.

This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investments, Mariam Katagum, during the first virtual meeting of Economic Sustainability Committee in 2022 chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa yesterday.

In a statement by a Presidential spokesman in the Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the panel also disclosed that it had approved N10 billion for the Nigeria sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to fund the deployment and local assembly of 200,000 (off-grid) Solar Homes System under the Solar Power Naija partnership between the agency and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

According to him, highlights of the presentations by the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to the committee included the report that about 2.1 million jobs have been retained or created through the implementation of the ESP programmes.

It will be recalled that in response to the fallout of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the President had in June 2020, mandated the Vice President – as chair of the Economic Sustainability Committee, to coordinate the implementation of the ESP aimed at cushioning the economic effects of the global pandemic.

No state so far has received anything less than N1 billion, she disclosed. Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, in his presentation, disclosed that while about 1.3 million jobs were retained through the MSME and Payroll support, 774,000 jobs were created from the Public Works Programme and 26,021 jobs from roads construction /rehabilitation.

In the same vein, the Committee was briefed that over 1.1 million Nigerians have benefitted from the different schemes under the ESP MSME Survival Fund, thereby saving millions of jobs.

A breakdown, he added, showed there are 459,334 beneficiaries under the Payroll Support Scheme; 307,687 beneficiaries from the Artisan & Transport Scheme.

Katagum, had told the panel that while all states of the federation have received varying levels of the N75B Survival Fund with its different schemes, eventually each state would soon receive a minimum of N1.7 billion cumulative from all the schemes. Lagos, Abia and Kano States have already crossed the bar, with Lagos reaching over N2.5 billion and Kano over N2 billion.

(New Telegraph)