The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Monday approved the establishment of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund to cushion the effects of the current economic hardship on vulnerable Nigerians.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, said the fund is expected to garner up to $5 billion annually.
She said there would be a governing board that would supervise the implementation of the fund.
“Again, we are grateful to President Bola Tinubu today for the approval given for the creation of the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trusts Fund.
“This is a flexible form of financing that can help us get contributions from different sectors. So we’re going to have contributions from government, from the private sector, development partners, individuals, philanthropic individuals, and other innovative forms of crowd-funding and pooling of funds together.
“This to allow for emergency response to humanitarian crisis in Nigeria. Every other day we hear about crisis, the floods and the rest of it. We need to be able to respond adequately as a country.
“Beyond this, the issue of poverty alleviation is one of the agendas of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his eight-point agenda and we want to be able to tackle it headlong.
“Every year we hope to be able to raise at least $5 billion within this fund and this is from the various sources that I’ve mentioned and even more. We are hopeful that with the creation of this funding, we can sit down with all the key stakeholders, including other ministries, and actually work out the full modality of implementation in Nigeria,” she said.
The minister said the council also approved the ratification of the protocol on the protection of the rights of older persons in Nigeria.
“We have signed up to the African charter and this has made us one of the countries within Africa that has approved that older people be protected and should not be discriminated against at any level.
“And this gives them a lot of protection and the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is interested in their welfare and protecting their rights,” she said.
