MDGs’ conditional grants scheme touched 30m Nigerians, says Gbeneol

As part of poverty alleviation strategies by the Federal Government, about 30 million Nigerians are said to have benefited from the Conditional Grants Scheme under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programme.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the ongoing presidential summit on MDGs and the post 2015 agenda in Abuja, Precious Kalamba Gbeneol, the senior special assistant to the president, noted that projects executed under the scheme in 2011 reached more than 20 million people while it scaled up to about 30 million in 2012.

This is even as President Goodluck Jonathan called for the inclusion of poverty eradication, access to sustainable energy, infrastructural development, demographics and governance as part of the post 2015 development agenda to address the shortcomings of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In her opening remarks, Gbeneol noted that the MDGs have helped to galvanise local and international efforts aimed at improving the lives of the poor and the most vulnerable in society since leaders of 189 United Nations member states signed the millennium declaration in New York in September 2000.

“Nigeria’s MDGs countdown strategy has served as a roadmap, guiding the integration of the MDGs agenda into local frameworks such as the Vision 20:2020, the transformation agenda of this administration, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and their state and local government variants.”

On achievement of the MDGs in Nigeria, she said, “Today, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that through the Conditional Grants Scheme alone, more than 12,342 water projects, 2,734 VIP toilets, 5,206 health facilities, 520 ambulances, 356 health workers’ quarters, 3,136 classroom blocks, 92 teachers’ accommodation, 2,807,208 exercise books, 81,603 classroom benches, among others, have been provided nationwide in the participating local government areas.

“In addition to these, the Conditional Grants Scheme partnered with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency to recruit 4,710 village health workers with the training of 68,430 health workers belonging to other cadres.