2016 Budget: Buhari Doles Out N500 Billion For School Feeding, Post-NYSC Grant

The Federal Government on Tuesday, December 8, has proposed N500 billion in the 2016 budget as social investment. This was contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), sent from President Muhammadu Buhari dated December 8, 2015 to the National Assembly.

In the letter, the programmes include social feeding programmes initiatives, conditional cash transfer to the most vulnerable and post National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) grant. This will be performed in collaboration with the state government to institute well-structured social welfare programmes.

The statement read in part: ” The Federal government will collaborate with state governments to institute well-structured social welfare intervention programme such as: school feeding programme initiatives, conditional cash transfer to the most Vulnerable, and post NYSC grant. N500 billion has been provisioned in the 2016 budget as social investments for these programmes.”

The letter added that the interventions will start as a pilot scheme and work towards securing the support donor agencies and development partners in order to minimize potential risks.

Meanwhile, the Presidency on Friday, December 4, 2015 said that President Muhammadu Buhari has not breached any law by not submitting the MTEF‎ to National Assembly for consideration .

The MTEF document according to law was supposed to have been submitted for approval by August 2015 in line with the four months to the end of the financial year requirement stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.‎