NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

More details are emerging about the social protection programmes of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, including a scheme to grant soft loans to about one million artisans and market women in the proposed 2016 budget.

A senior federal government official who described the current controversy in the Senate regarding two versions of the proposed budget as a “distraction and a storm in a tea-cup,” confirmed that a provision to grant a one -time soft loan of about N60,000 each to one million market women, men and artisans is in the budget.

According to the official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said the budget sent out by the presidency is a bunch of proposals which would only become sacrosanct relatively after it had become an appropriation.

“To now have all this hue and cry on alleged versions, and switched copies is not just a distraction, but a storm in a tea-cup.”

The official said there were far too important components in the budget proposals, including the soft loan which is the Micro-Credit component of the Buhari Social Protection programmes.