President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has identified the commencement of the student loan scheme, the N70,000 new minimum wage and the establishment of the consumer credit initiative as reasons Nigerians should not embark on the proposed August 1-10, 2024 hardship protest.
The President disclosed this when he received a delegation of Islamic leaders led by Sheikh Bala Lau, at the State House on Thursday.
Tinubu urged the protest planners not to turn Nigeria into Sudan.
According to him, his government was reworking its social welfare scheme to reach every vulnerable Nigerian at the grassroots level.
“We are reworking the social welfare scheme to reach the ward level, which is the closest to our people. We are going to ensure that we re-establish connection with the wards, again, so that we can give allowances to the poor and the vulnerable.
“The student loans will pay for school fees. There will be monetary support for the education of our children. The consumer credit will support citizens to buy cars and houses, and they can repay gradually.
“We have increased the minimum wage by more than 100 percent,” he said.
It was reports that on Wednesday, the Nigerian National Assembly passed the new Minimum Wage Act after Tinubu and Nigerian workers agreed on N70,000 minimum wage.
Earlier, last week, the federal government commenced the disbursement of funds to 110,000 successful beneficiaries of its N35 billion funded student loan scheme.
This comes months after the Tinubu administration in April had approved the take-off of N100 billion consumer credit for Nigerians.
