The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu, says President Bola Tinubu’s recent child and gender friendly budget will boost human capital development.
Bagudu said this at the inauguration of Inter-ministerial Network on Child Benefit for Inclusive Economic Growth and Human Development in Abuja on Thursday.
According to the minister, what we are doing now is consistent with our gender, and the renewed hope mandate of President Bola Tinubu.
According to Bagudu, there are some children who are left behind for no fault of theirs and this ought not to be so as the world is wealthy enough to ensure every child gets educated.
“And this is a clarion call.
“President Bola Tinubu says l he has left no one in any doubt that Nigeria has come to that moment.
“Where we will do whatever it takes to ensure that under his leadership, the renewed mandate agenda, that no child will be left behind.
“He recently presented to the National Assembly a child and gender friendly budget to boost the spending on human capital development, this among other initiatives that the ministry is leading,” Bagudu said.
The Minister commended the president for separating the ministry of youth and sport, saying that the move recognised our young people, including the children that are the next generation leaders.
He said it recognised that the youth deserve specialised attention.
The Minister also commended the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other development partners, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with a mandate related to the inclusive nature of economic growth and human development.
The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said that as part of efforts to address the overall poverty and vulnerability challenges in the country, the Federal Government had initiated several social safety nets programmes to support economically disadvantaged people.
She said that poverty and vulnerability were two critical development issues that Nigeria was facing.
She said the country had continued to experience economic and social inequalities.
“Nigeria has made progress in reducing the poverty rate but the COVID-19 pandemic made a devastating impact on the country’s economy.
“The inaugurated committee aims to investigate the effectiveness of child grant/benefit in addressing child vulnerability and poverty, analyse the economy wide impact of child grant in the country.
“It aims to examine the compatibility of the objectives of the child grant with recent macroeconomic and fiscal reforms.
“It also aims to recommend measures to improve the effectiveness of the child grant and develop an interactive simulation tools to present the results of the analysis among others,” Munduate said.