President Bola Tinubu is to commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and launch of the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) for 15million households.
The event, to be held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, would be attended by cabinet members, the diplomatic community as well as top government functionaries and political aides. The day is an international observance celebrated each year on October 17 throughout the world.
The observance of the day can be traced back to October 17, 1987 when over 100,000 people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948. It was signed to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger across the globe.
This year’s theme, ‘’Decent Work and Social Protection: Putting Dignity in Practice for All’’, calls for universal access to decent work and social protection as a means to uphold human dignity.
It stressed that decent work must empower people, provide fair wages and safe working conditions, as well as recognise the value and humanity of all workers. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CCT launch would be heralded by the symbolic handing over of cheques to a number of households at the venue of the event.
The CCT programme was announced by Tinubu during the Independence Day speech, where he said that 15 million households would each be given ₦25,000 for three months to alleviate the poverty level.
NAN reports that CCT are transfers given to beneficiaries based on specific actions such as sending children to school or making regular health visits. In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor, according to the 2018/2019 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multi-dimensionally poor, according to the National MPI 2022.
Multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas
