Nigeria, US Sign $2.3bn Agreement To Slash Poverty

THE Federal Government and the United States’ Government have signed a $2.3 billion agreement to assist Nigeria in the next five years to combat extreme poverty among Nigerians.
The Senior Special Assistant-Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande , disclosed that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, signed the agreement with the United States Agency for International Development, (USAID) at the Presidential villa.

The Vice President said: “coming from the United States, this is particularly, heartening and we are pleased the US is able to do this.”

Speaking with the USAID Head of Mission in Nigeria, Mr. Michael Harvey, during the signing event in his office, Osinbajo noted that since President Mohammadu Buhari’s working visit to US in July, “we have seen much better cooperation from the US, there is a great deal of interaction on how we intend to implement our agenda. We know the interaction is because the US wants us to succeed.”
The Vice President added that the issue of the extreme poverty “is a very important issue for us, it is at the heart of our economic policy, at the center of our agenda. You can’t have that vast number of poor people and don’t plan around that, and for us, this is crucial, and absolutely important.”
Osinbajo also noted that the assistance is quite substantial, while the inclusion of the Northeast, among the areas of focus in the agreement, is also very important. He said there is a consensus in government to address the problem of out-of-school children and the observed drop in enrollment figures in parts of the nation.