The federal government on Monday said unemployed young citizens will be paid a monthly stipend to cushion the effect of the current economic hardship.
Nigeria’s Minister for economy, Mr. Wale Edun disclosed this after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.
Edun said the approval by President Tinubu was to improve the purchasing power of the poorest Nigerians in a period of heightened food prices.
“Tinubu has instructed that the Social Security unemployment programme be devised, particularly to cater for the youth, for the unemployed graduates, as well as the society as a whole,” Edun said.
Nonetheless, the Minister did not disclose how much the stipend would be, a specific time of commencement, and the duration of implementation.
The intervention was announced days after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 29.90 percent in January from 28.92 per cent in December 2023.
NBS said on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.08 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2023, which was 21.82 percent.
The NBS also noted that the food inflation rate in January 2024 increased to 35.41 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 11.10 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2023 (24.32 percent).
According to the NBS, the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, oil and fat, fish, meat, fruit, coffee, tea, and cocoa.
While the figures indicate a spike in commodity prices, Edun said the government intends to introduce “an unemployment benefit” for the young unemployed Nigerians.
Official figures by the NBS as of December 2023 puts the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose by 5 percent in a population of over 200 million people with 46 percent living in poverty.
The increasing poverty rate in the country was exacerbated by the removal of subsidy on petrol by the president who explained that the initial arrangement for funding the production of crude only benefitted a few rich at the expense of millions of poor citizens.
Tinubu, at different times, has stated that the temporary suffering of Nigerians was necessary for the country to transition to a phase of economic growth.
