By Basheer Luqman Olarewaju
When you assess an economy, two major questions usually come to mind. You ask: how substantial is it? or how unequal is it? The question you care about most will inform the economic policies you advocate for. If you pay more attention to size, you will naturally support policies that should increase economic growth. If you care more about equity, your concern would be related to poverty alleviation and measures to reduce economic inequality.
The state, despite her huge potential in sailing through any economic meltdown through her several human and natural resources still battling with underdevelopment, and as such, it is pertinent for any serious administration at the moment to adopt a policy that can reduce the level of economic imbalance rather than spending the resources on building an empire that cannot be sustained.
If I can link the situation of the state to anything to drive the point to a meaningful height, thence, let us imagine that Kwara’s economic welfare is a cutlet. The main difference between development via economic growth or poverty alleviation is that the former attempts to increase the size of the cutlet i.e. it creates more opportunities and wealth of varying levels for people. The latter, on the other hand, focuses on reserving some of the cutlets for the most disenfranchised people, ensuring they are taken care of.
Kwara State Government had adopted the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari Administration with Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP) and like the initiative adopted, in our case, It is fair to say that the Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq administration is focusing on the second route.
In 2019 when Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo was asked what the government was doing to boost the economy, he said, “We started the largest investment programme for social investment in the history of this country.” Osinbajo was talking about the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) — the umbrella that houses the government’s four main welfare programmes.
(i) the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) Programme, a nationwide school feeding programme;
(ii) a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme where cash is given to beneficiaries that meet specific criteria, done in collaboration with the World Bank;
(iii) N-power, a programme targeted at the youth, where stipends are provided to beneficiaries who are then assigned to jobs that serve the public;
(iv) Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, a micro-lending intervention for farmers (FarmerMoni), small traders (TraderMoni) and small businesses (MarketMoni).
All of these programmes attempt to reduce poverty in different ways. Kwara State Government has been strategically writing her name on a gold platter with the modus operandi of the KWASSIP. It is well known that the initiative is created to tackle poverty and hunger across the state. The suite of programmes under the KWASSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth, and women. Since its establishment, these programs combined have supported several thousand beneficiaries state-wide through a fair and transparent process with aligned goals.
Those who criticize the initiative are likely to be considering the impacts it gives the city dwellers. However, this administration is making a real impact on the programme. Think of a woman with a net worth of N2000 and you are giving her N10, 000 to upgrade her business. That is cool, right! It is sacrosanct that most of those citizens who are inhabitants in the countryside could not get credit facilities. So, they are happy getting the money to support themselves.
In cities, it is easier to undermine the importance of the stipend as one can think that N10, 000 is too small but when one goes to the countryside, one will see how it changes lives. N10, 000 means a lot of money in our villages and among the poor. Unlike yesteryears, the rustics have more reasons to resuscitate their hopes in welcoming the dividend of democracy: they are not forgotten and the government holds them in high esteem.
In many reports from critics, they requested the rationale behind the state government duplicating the initiative since the Federal Government extends its beneficiaries country-side. In simple logic, the administration is ‘leaving no one behind. The World Bank has also adopted the programme under its CARES programme. This is being replicated in other countries. We all saw the impact of the programme during the Covid-19 lockdown. Imagine there is no such programme.
Recently, the state government launched the command centre of Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP) under the watch of Mohammed Brimah. The centre is digitized to enable smooth documentation of the data and ease the process of activities of the initiative. Another attractive essence of the automated command centre is for the social safety net of the administration.
In a statement credited to Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, he promised to make available more resources to expand the programme. Furthermore, “this programme is not open to abuses. It is well documented. The next administration can come and interrogate it. You can talk to any of the beneficiaries and track them. We are also mindful that we do not politicize the programme because whoever benefits is from this state and we are also complementing the effort of the federal government,” he said.
Chief Operating Officer of the Bank of Industry (BOI)’s Growth Platform Uzoma Nwagba commended Kwara Government for its commitment to transparency which he said differentiates Kwara from others doing the same. “Kwara approach is one built on transparency. It is not a lack of people who need this intervention and it is not a lack of ideas and how it can be done; what is unique is the political will, honesty, and sincerity that you want the money to get to the hands of the people fully. It is also good that the state embraces technology to drive the process instead of filing papers,” Nwagba said.
Patriotic fellows should be extremely proud of what the state government has done; should be extremely proud about the vision of His Excellency, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, which made this happen. We have seen tens of thousands of people who have benefitted from KWASSIP. These are people who ordinarily wouldn’t have such opportunities. Money is one thing but more importantly, they now have things like identity such as BVN under being captured. So, they can now get a wallet to transact with.
