Oxfam Urges Incoming Government To Reduce Poverty

 

Oxfam Nigeria, a non-profit organization, urges the incoming government to reduce poverty.  

According to Vicent Ahonsi on Sunday, he was concerned about the fund allocated to education and another sector.

Speaking onAhonsi statement, the government should go against the separation of women and persons living with disabilities.

“The incoming government needs to take urgent steps towards ending hunger, reducing inequality, and reducing the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line," the statement reads.

“To stimulate economic recovery, the new government needs to realize that small & medium enterprises (SMEs) are key to building an economy that is fair and just as they constitute a sustainable approach to tackling the developmental challenges that the economy is facing.

“The SME sector has proven to be the backbone of major developed and emerging economies, as an important contributor to employment and economic growth.”

According to the international labour organization, the director of Oxfam says 48 percent of national GDP, and 96 percent of businesses is contributed by SMEs.

He further speaks about the essence of the SME ecosystem.

“Though significant growth has been achieved in the SME sector recently, there is still much to be done to further leverage the opportunities the ecosystem presents,” he said.

“To facilitate an inclusive business environment, where women and youth are empowered to participate, the incoming government needs to provide the enabling environment, the technical support, and training that the SMEs need.

“To narrow the wide education inequality between the rich and the poor the incoming government needs to invest significantly in free universal education, with an emphasis on improving access to high-quality primary and secondary education.

“The incoming government should as a matter of priority invest a minimum of 15 percent of the national budget in the health sector.

“It should also allocate at least 10 percent of the budget to agriculture, encouraging women and youth in agricultural businesses with farm inputs.

“It should develop a national agricultural investment plan that is gender-sensitive and climate-proof, which seeks primarily to support small-scale farmers in non-cash crop sectors.”

According to the director of Oxfam, income is to be generated.

“To consider adding a “solidarity” tax on top of these to cover the additional needs for post-COVID recovery by taking steps to tax wealth including raising the taxes on financial transactions, inheritance and gifts, and capital gains,” he added.

“There is a need to continue to prevent illicit financial flows, from corrupt, or criminally inclined individuals or corporations. Recipient nations should be prevailed upon to take measures to discourage illicit financial flows into their countries by enforcing more diligence checks.

“The incoming government should tackle sexist laws that discriminate against women and create new gender-equal laws to uproot violence and discrimination.

“All sectors of the society should urgently define policies that will ensure that women, people living with disabilities (PWDs), and other vulnerable groups are represented in all decision-making spaces."