“And if we have a population of 160 million, 50 per cent of 160 million is 80 million. That is a very large number of poor people,” he said. To this effect, he said, NAPEP would release money to faith-based organizations as grants, instead of loans, which was the case before, adding that the amount to be given is not known yet until after the meeting of stakeholders.
“It used to be like loans, but now we try to provide grants to faith-based organizations. By the time we leave here we will know how much we have available for the programme to start, and start immediately. With the little we have we have to make sure we develop the strategy, the mechanism to make it look big; to make it achieve more. It is not always what you have that causes you to get more but theattitude you take towards what you have. It is the attitude towards what you have” he said. Also, Kpakoi recommended that poverty should be fought from the top and bottom.
According to him, if you are fighting from the top you must make sure that there is strong economic growth. “If we don’t have high economic growth, I can assure you we will never be as successful as we would have liked to be in thefight. You cannot be successful in the fight against poverty in an economy that is not growing. And that is why we are where we are today in the first place.
“But I am proud to say that there has been a strong economic growth taking place in every single local government. We must have drivers of growth, economic engines,” he said. He identified agriculture as the key driver of the economy as it represents 42 per cent of the Growth Domestic Product (GDP).
“The first place that I believe we must have to look at is agriculture. We must leverage agriculture. Today, agriculture represents up to as much as 42 per cent of our GDP. We are not creating new jobs out of it.
“If we are looking to create new jobs they must be created out of agriculture in the area of processing.
That is what we have been trying to do with our mini-development economic scheme. And I think we should continue with that in working with state and local government levels to make sure we come with new ideas, new ways of creating factories at local government levels,” he said.
The National Co-ordinator also advocated that jobs should be created at the local level as most kidnappers today do that because of idleness. “Most people engaged in kidnapping today, and other untoward activities, will not be able to do so if they were fully engaged and working in meaningful facilities, where they make good money,” he opined.
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