Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu has expressed the commitment of the administration of President Bola Tinubu to impacting positively on the wellbeing of all Nigerians especially the poor and vulnerable households.
Mallam Issa-Onilu stated this in Asaba at a news conference in continuation of the nationwide enlightenment campaign on five thematic areas including flood mitigation, national security awareness towards achieving improved security consciousness in communities.
The NOA DG highlighted other thematic areas of the enlightenment campaign to include Government Policies, Programmes and Activities, the Nigerian Identity Project and National Symbols, and the National Values Re-orientation for Students of Secondary Schools, and Tertiary Institution s against signout extreme practices.
On government programmes, Issa-Onilu hinted that over two million households that have enrolled under the Social Safety Nets Expansion, had benefitted from the Conditional Cash Transfer.
He stated that Trader Moni and Farmer Moni were being introduced through the Government Enterprise and Empowerment GEEPprogramme- interest free loans of up to a maximum of 100,000 Naira and Farmer Moni of up to 300,000 will be provided.
Issa-Onilu said the administration of President Tinubu had disbursed 59 billion naira to over 600,000 students that have applied for NELFUND Student Loan. He explained that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) was established by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to ensure that no Nigerian person who has qualified to go for tertiary education is prevented from doing so, as a result of inability to pay school fees.
Under the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, the NOA DG said renovation of 700 rural schools nationwide was in the process of being undertaken as an intervention to improve the state of schools in the rural areas across the country.
He revealed that 110 billion naira had been earmarked to support 150,000 youths across the country under the National Youth Investment Fund being coordinated by the Federal Ministry of youth along with other stakeholders.
The NOA Director General represented by the a Director, General Services of the Agency, Headquarters Abuja, Mrs Rebecca Nasamu, who emphasized the need for flood prone states to adhere to NIMET warning advisories on flood, recalled that there was a Presidential Flood Mitigation directive which also involved release of 3 billion naira per states in 2024 aimed at drainage clearance and relocation.
Issa-Onilu noted that a lot was being done to improve on the nation’s security Architecture, including the establishment of specialized units of the Armed Forces aimed at enabling rapid response as directed by the Chief of Defense Staff.
He stated further, ” The Armed Forces are deploying strategies aimed at tackling diverse security challenges including the deployment of drones, armoured vehicles, surveillance technologies, with over 15,000 new security personnel deployed nationwide
”It is our intention that in all the states we will be carrying out the security awareness campaign, we will reach no less 3 million Nigerians through media engagement, markets, motor parks rallies, townhall meetings, advocacy visits to traditional and religious leaders, road shows and community engagements”, Issa-Onilu stated.
Delta State Director of NOA, Mrs Tracy Ikolomi gave an assurance that they would continue to enlighten Nigerians about government policies, programmes and activities, as well as get feedbacks from the people to government for intervention.
Great job, Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu Director General National Orientation Agency