Osinbajo: Nigeria on course to tackle poverty, unemployment
News & Trends •
so we have programmes and initiatives in place that promote accountability like treasury single account tsa and other policies the vice president added1 vice president yemi osinbajo has said that the country is on course to effectively tackle poverty and unemployment through its micro-economic planning and social investment programmes1 the group of 10 executive directors on a working visit to nigeria represents 93 countries from across africa asia central america and europe1 the vice president further said the buhari administration was determined to tackle corruption to bring economic prosperity for nigeria1 there is a tendency to assume that if we get just a number of things right in our micro-economic planning for instance to promote trade and so on we would be able to deal with the issues of poverty through a trickle down policy1 but unfortunately here this is not necessarily the case. we might get the micro issues right and still have the problems especially of poverty1 in terms of systematic policy you have to keep innovating looking for what works tweaking it here and there1 also if you dont deal with issues around corruption it becomes difficult. if we allow resources to be pilfered and wasted then the whole idea of economic prosperity is difficult1 osinbajo said this on thursday when a delegation of senior officials from the world bank led by the world bank group executive director for italy mr patrizio pagano visited him at the presidential villa abuja1 osinbajo said that the buhari administrations social investment programmes were targeted at ensuring inclusion and taking millions of nigerians out of poverty1 so the question for us is how to ensure inclusion or inclusivity how to get millions of our very poor people into the economy how to structure our budget in such a way that recognises that1 that is why we set up the n500 billion social investment programmes1 though we are not spending anything near that yet it is an important statement for us to address the question of inclusivity he stated1 on nigerias role in west africa the vice president noted that nigeria is very involved in the region in the areas of security1 we promote regional cooperation and we also try to address issues of dumping and the smuggling of rice and poultry products1 osinbajo highlighted the importance of regional cooperation in the area of trade adding thathe met with the president of benin recently in togo where they discussed ways in which nigeria and its neighbours could effectively resolve the issue of smuggling1 the world bank director mr patrizio pagano commended the federal government for its economic reforms adding that the bank would fully support the country in achieving sustainable growth1