Yemi Osinbajo, vice president of Nigeria, says the present regime has saved over one million jobs and forestalled the closure of over 150,000 small businesses hit by COVID-19 through the Economic Sustainability Plan.
According to him, social protection schemes could break the cycle of poverty, improve employment opportunities, and contribute to economic growth.
Osinbajo made this statement on Tuesday during a virtual session of the United Nations High-Level Forum on Jobs and Social Protection in Abuja.
Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement titled, ‘Why social protection schemes are crucial, by Osinbajo at UN high-level forum on jobs’.
According to him, Nigeria’s response to the fallouts of COVID-19 was shaped by the conviction that “social protection schemes are vital, and can break the poverty cycle, give real access to jobs and economic opportunities, provide social protection resources and improve human capacity and productivity.”
The Economic Sustainability Plan is part of the government’s response to restoring growth by mitigating macroeconomic shocks, tackling health challenges, avoiding business closures, protecting and creating jobs, and protecting the poor and vulnerable.
In addition to stepping up health interventions, the Vice President explained that the Plan also included labour-intensive interventions in agriculture, housing, and public works, as well as solar energy for 5 million households.
“The ESP also had a Survival Fund, which gave payroll support to small businesses in manufacturing and services as well as to artisans and transporters. As a result of our interventions, we have provided finance and off-take opportunities for millions of farmers.
“We have also been able to save up to one million jobs and prevented the close-down of at least 150,000 small businesses. We are also able to extend support to vulnerable groups by deepening our existing social intervention programmes and the development of a Rapid Response Register for cash transfers to the urban poor.”
He noted that insufficient financial resources remain a constraint to achieving set objectives, saying “the importance of the recently approved increase of $650 billion in SDR allocations for improving global liquidity.”
The Vice President referred to Special Drawing Rights, supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund, which represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged.
He also restated the call for improved access to vaccines and sustained funding of gas projects.
He stated that “we also believe that the already challenging global environment is now being further complicated by lack of access to vaccines as well as by policy moves in developed economies and international financial institutions to defund gas projects.”
On climate change, he said “it is clear that climate change and environmental damage will harm the prospect of creating jobs in many countries of the world including ours.
Yet we know that access to energy is vital for generating the fast growth required to create jobs and to provide the resources for social protection.
“For a gas-rich country like Nigeria, we have to deploy gas not only for electricity but also to reduce the carbon emissions that result from the use of firewood and coal for cooking.”
Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has in the past advocated for a smooth transition and more effective engagement toward achieving the goal of Net-Zero Emission by 2050 at several fora.
To achieve the global target of Net-Zero Emission by 2050, some developed economies and international financial institutions have announced the defunding of gas and fossil fuel projects throughout the world.
Nigeria has spoken out against defunding because it hinders the growth and development of developing nations.
