FG: 36 million Nigerians benefited from the social development project 

According to the federal government, the Community Social Development Project benefited 36 million Nigerians (CSDP).

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development Sadiiya Umar Farouq revealed that 36 million Nigerians have benefited in the last 11 years.

She said this in her opening remarks at the CSDP’s ‘Close Out’ ceremony on Tuesday in Abuja, which marked the end of the program in Nigeria. She stated that the project, which began in 2009, has two more funding sources totaling $415 million.

The minister emphasized that the CSDP followed the community-driven development (CDD) approach’s basic principles. She emphasized that this was a development paradigm that prioritized the needs of the poor and vulnerable, providing them with development resources to meet their specific need.

“The CSDP has executed micro-projects in impoverished areas across the 543 Local Government Areas of 29 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) using this unique technique.

“This accounts for almost 70% of Nigeria’s total number of local governments Poverty Maps, which are agreed upon by each member state and the FCT, and are used to identify impoverished communities,” she added.

Ms Farouq said that the initiative had a significant impact on poor and vulnerable people’s access to social and natural resource infrastructure in the benefiting areas.

She went on to say that the CSDP has 11 million direct beneficiaries spread over 29 states, with an estimated 25 million indirect beneficiaries. According to the minister, the CSDP has completed 16,166 micro-projects in 5,664 localities and 934 vulnerable groups, among other things.

“These micro-projects span eight intervention areas: education, health, water, transportation, electricity, socio-economic, environment, and community housing; 5,764 classrooms, 1,323 health centers, and 4,442 micro water projects were built or rehabilitated,” she explained.