By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
Experts in Kano state have raised the alarm that not less than 11 million children are suffering from malnutrition in the North-west zone due mainly to poverty and security challenges.
Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investment, Hajiya Maryam Uwais, who raised the alarm at a one-day launch and sensitisation workshop on the federal government Social Intervention Project at Kano House, also lamented that less than 150 million Nigerians are living on less than $2 per day, including about 2.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Representative of the Special Adviser at the workshop, which is in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser to the President, Dr Tope Sinkaye, also said over 18 million Nigerians, who have since graduated from tertiary institutions are presently unemployed, a situation, she said required multi-pronged approach to tackle.
According to her, Kano has the highest rate of malnutrition, put at 45 per cent, stressing that the workshop is targeted on the poorest of the poor, who would be selected from the select local government areas.
She noted that biometrics of all the beneficiaries would be documented, adding that each of the implementation processes of the five basic programmes differ from programme to programme.
She listed the five programmes to include job creation, school feeding, entrepreneurship promotion and cash and transfer unit, pointing out that all the programmes would be technologically driven, while the funds would be electronically transferred to ensure that there are no leakages.
Uwais regretted that only 12 per cent of people in Kano had bank account, adding that they would also be targeted for financial inclusion.
Kano Deputy Governor, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, who represented the Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, thanked the team and the stakeholders for their support and cooperation in actualising the programme in Kano.
Ganduje acknowledged that Kano was not only the most populous in the country but also saddled with the most difficult challenges.
Apart from that Ganduje highlighted the efforts of the state government in tackling the menace of Almajirai in the state, as well as all efforts its making to address poverty in the state.
In her speech, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Hajiya Mohammed Bello, listed a number of factors, which come together to impoverish a person, pointing out that the state government was doing everything within its control to frontally tackle the challenge.