SURE-P: Goals and Achievements so far...

The government has put in place certain programmes and initiatives, which are specifically targeted at job creation and inclusive growth. These include the following:

• Community Service Scheme (SURE-P): To engage 320,000 youth in labour intensive work such as construction and rehabilitation of social and economic infrastructure.

• Graduate Internship Scheme (SURE-P): To attach 50,000 graduates to competent firms to enhance skills development towards employability.

• YouWin! Programme: To support 3,600 young existing or aspiring entrepreneurs over the next three years with grants, mentoring, business registration, so that they can create up to 110,000 jobs for their fellow youth.

• Save One Million Lives: To save one million lives and improve the quality of care in Nigeria’s Health Facilities by 2015.

With respect to the particular programmes listed above, here are some of their outcomes:

      •  Community Service Scheme (SURE-P): The Community Service Scheme (SURE-P) has               engaged about 120,000 youth from its inception in 2012 to date.

• Graduate Internship Scheme (SURE-P): Since its inception in 2012, about 4,000 graduates have been matched under this scheme.
  
• YouWin! Programme: This programme has trained 12,000 aspiring or existing young entrepreneurs and created over 26,000 new jobs. Presently, the programme is funding 1,200 entrepreneurs identified in the first round of the three round competitions. Identified 1,200 women in May 2013 across the six geopolitical zones to receive funding in the second round. As of March 2013, a total of 12,108 jobs have been created across the country in the early stages of the first round. At least 80,000 jobs are expected by the end of the third round in 2015.
  
• Reducing Extreme Hunger by 2015: Nigeria was recently honoured for meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing people living in absolute hunger by half, well ahead of the 2015 target set by the United Nations.
  
• Save One Million Lives: Over 433,000 lives were saved in 2011 and 2012 by scaling up 6 cost-effective interventions in maternal and child health, nutrition, prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV, provision of essential commodities, malaria control, and routine immunisation. The Offices of MDGs and SURE-P, as well as the private sector, have also supported the health sector. On the SURE-P front alone, over 9,000 frontline health workers have been recruited, trained, and deployed. In addition, about 1,500 primary health care facilities have been refurbished and supplied with essential materials.
  
• Almajiri Schools: About 13 States have benefited from the construction of special girls schools and 124 Almajiri Schools are being constructed to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the north.