2025: Humanitarian Affairs Ministry Seeks N260bn For 2m Jobs

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction has sought the appropriation of N260 billion by the National Assembly in the 2025 fiscal year to create 2 million jobs.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Professor Nentawe Yilwatda requested on Friday in his presentation to the National Assembly joint committee on Poverty reduction and social investment during the 2025 budget defence session.

He said, “The National Assembly should note that the Ministry has a mandate to create 2 million jobs by 2025.

“This will be achieved through a combination of efforts: The ministry has already procured starter packs seven that enable over 110,000 beneficiaries to embark on self-reliant ventures. These starter packs are vital tools for entrepreneurship and economic growth.

“However, to ensure the success of these programmes, we require N55 billion funds to conduct a 2-week intensive training for all beneficiaries, payment of resource persons and logistics funding to facilitate the effective distribution of the starter packs at N45,000 per beneficiary.

“There is a need for monitoring and evaluation to ensure the transparency and sustainability of these initiatives at N5,000 per beneficiary.

“Additionally, we need to train 50,000 unemployed graduates and nongraduates under our Skill2Wealth Initiative, which seeks to create many micro and small-scale businesses.

“This will cost N50 billion (at N1,000,000 per beneficiary: covering training in all the 36 states and FCT, Starter pack, linkage to the market and M&E).”

“There is also the need to create a budget line for the Humanitarian Response Fund of N10 billion for communities affected by climate-change-related disasters, conflicts and man-made crises, including flooding, fire outbreaks and insurgency attacks that have displaced thousands.

“In the same vein, another budget line of N15 billion is required in the 2025 fiscal year for durable solutions for households affected by the disaster in 2024, just as

The Ministry requires an additional N130 billion as Intervention Fund to resolve these humanitarian and Poverty reduction challenges across the country in 2025″.

While responding to questions concerning the non-implementation of the 5,000 Vulnerable Nigerians, the Minister assured that efforts would be intensified to get Mr President’s approval for the release of the sum of N3.7 billion approved in the 2024 Appropriation Act as a Grant to 5,000 Vulnerable Groups domiciled with Access Bank for onward disbursement to the beneficiaries.

According to the Minister, the Ministry’s 2025 overhead ceiling was increased from the sum of N682.682.013billion in 2024 to the sum of N978,386,116.00billion in 2025, representing a 43.31% increase above the 2024 budget with a view to the cushioning effect of inflation.

He, however, lamented that the capital budget ceiling of N4,601,092.674.00 billion will not be able to address the ever-increasing humanitarian challenges, saying, ” It is worth noting that global humanitarian support from donor countries has dropped, and most donors are targeting the Middle East, Sudan, and Ukraine.”

The Minister, who was accompanied by the National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Mr Gbadamosi Lawan, also solicited the amendment of the NSIPA Act to address some of the gaps that may hamper the agency’s effective operations, especially in the area of funding, such as recurrent expenditure.

In their separate responses, the co-chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Idiat Adebule and Hon Abdulkadir Jobe, assured the Minister of the National Assembly’s readiness to provide sufficient funds for the Ministry in the 2025 fiscal year for its various intervention programmes geared towards reducing poverty among vulnerable Nigerians and mitigating humanitarian crises.