President Buhari budgets N500bn for ‘vulnerable Nigerians’

The federal government has proposed N500bn for social welfare programmes in the 2016 fiscal year.

This proposal was stated in a letter containing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) sent to the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari. Senate President Bukola Saraki read the letter on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday.


The social programmes, which will be coordinated with state governments, include school feeding initiatives, conditional cash transfer to the most vulnerable and post National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) grant.

The federal government will collaborate with state governments to‎ institute well-structured social welfare intervention programme such as school feeding programme initiatives, conditional cash transfer to the most Vulnerable, and post NYSC grant, the letter from the president read in part. N500bn has been provisioned in the 2016 budget as social investments for these programmes.

Buhari added that the interventions would start as a pilot scheme, but that the government would work towards securing the support of donor agencies and development partners in order to minimise potential risks.

The federal executive council (FEC) approved the MTEF on Monday after a three-hour meeting presided over by the president.