Accommodate Almajiri in social programme — Ganduje

Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has called on the federal government to review its National Social Safety Net Programme (NAPPS), to accommodate out-of-school children, especially the Almajirai.
He said Almajirai was a critical socio-economic problem which needed to be tackled proactively to lift the children out of poverty and tap their potentials for national growth.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting on implementation of the Social Safety Net Programme in Kano yesterday, Ganduje said the issue of child beggars was not only a problem to Northern Nigeria but a serious national challenge.
Ganduje was represented at the event by his Deputy, Professor Hafiz Abubakar, who lauded the federal government’s initiative on the programme at a time of serious unemployment and poverty worsened by a dwindling economy.
He said the Social Safety Net was in tandem with the policies of his administration to alleviate poverty, noting that to ensure the useful engagement of unemployed persons in the state, the state had set up committees to identify beneficiaries and ensure efficient implementation and management of the programme.
“I assure the federal government of our full support and commitment as well as readiness of the people of the state to make good use of this initiative,” he said.
Earlier, the Special Adviser on Social Investment, Office of the Vice President, Hajiya Maryam Uwais, who was represented Dr. Tope Sinkoye, said the objective of the programme was to reduce poverty and unemployment, encourage school enrolment, build citizens’ capacity and promote scholarship in Science and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.