It looks very challenging with many reports thundering on the escalating poverty in Nigeria: “Multinational professional services brand of firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC), in its recent report, has forecasted Nigeria’s poverty rate to reach 38.8% in 2024.” Yet, this should not be the end of the story. Nigeria has great tools to quickly move out of this economic stasis and visioning miry clay.
The new invention of transferring money to some poor families is very strange to me. The last administration started it, and I was expecting that to be discontinued by the new government. Unfortunately, that has been sustained. What would N20,000 or whatever do to a family of six in a month?
My recommendation when Buhari introduced it is to use the funds and structure a partnership with community development unions. Michael Okpara, ex-premier of Eastern Nigeria, used that model to advance massive transformation in the region. Those rural communities can administer these funds better than bureaucrats through a consultative process which will deliver agro support with silos, farm seeds, trading, etc.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Randomly picking 500 people in a community of 5,000 for N20k transfer does not look fair and sustainable. But building mini-catalysts for those 5,000 rural people may unlock opportunities for all. And if you support those 5,000 people to do those things by themselves, as Okpara did, you will see a better outcome. Yes, poverty will likely drop in a sustained way. Check the records of our first generation leaders, they built through communities because power was localized; today, we do not even consult and that must change.
(Statistically, most rural poor citizens are farmers. If they have access to coldroom or better access to market, you can help them. The cash transfer if managed by the community unions can provide catalysts over random lottery)
Summary:
Ndubuisi advocates against individual cash transfers in addressing p??verty in Nigeria, proposing instead a model where funds are transferred to community development unions to invest in mini-catalysts, fostering rural development for a more sustainable impact.
— Summarize (@summarizest) January 26, 2024
Imagine a fund for rural communities. To unlock this fund, communities, send proposals on local economic plans and we will contribute 90% of your budget. NO cash transfers to individuals; YES fund transfer to community development unions to invest in mini-catalysts to lift rural people.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
When you transfer raw cash to the supposed poor people without commensurate increase in productivity output, you are simply creating inflation. Where exactly is the money you are transferring coming from – printed or borrowed? This dizzying level of fraud being committed through government policies needs to stop. The only thing the money does is to keep the beneficiaries dependent and enslaved, something anathema to freedom. It only serves political purposes, you do not empower anyone by giving the person some feeding money.
What is clear is that the task of political leadership has proven to be overwhelming to all those who claim to have answers to the intractable problems in the land, but rather than surrendering and admitting their inadequacies, they are still doubling down, telling you that nothing else could have been done. Just step aside, and then watch if something else can be done.
It is not in the place of the incompetent to declare that a task is difficult or complicated, they are never qualified to make such assertion.