President Bola Tinubu has approved a ward-level development strategy designed to drive grassroots economic growth and address poverty across Nigeria’s 8,809 wards.
The Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme (RHWDP) was adopted during the 150th meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), held on Thursday at the State House in Abuja.
The programme forms part of the broader Renewed Hope Agenda, which targets a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
Speaking at the NEC meeting, Tinubu urged state governors to prioritise the welfare of citizens at the local level. “I want to appeal to you; let us change the story of our people in the rural areas. The economy is working. We are on the path of recovery, but we need to stimulate growth in the rural areas,” he said.
The RHWDP aims to serve as a coordinated intervention framework focused on poverty alleviation, food security, rural infrastructure, power supply, and job creation. The strategy sets minimum thresholds for economic activities—1,000 in smaller wards and 2,000 in larger ones—with oversight by a National Steering Committee and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning acting as secretariat.
The initiative was presented to the Council by Budget and Economic Planning Minister Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who said it would involve the three tiers of government in implementation.
To support execution, Tinubu directed that the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation be moved to the presidency and called for the expansion of the national school feeding programme to increase enrolment and reduce child poverty.
He also directed NEC to set up a committee to expedite infrastructure projects, including the Lagos-Calabar and Sokoto-Badagry highways.
Citing the 1999 Constitution and the Fifth Alteration Act, the programme draws legal authority from national policy directives aimed at improving productivity and achieving food security.
Also at the meeting, NEC instructed state governments to strengthen their emergency management agencies and asked the Federal Ministry of Finance to release emergency funding to address likely flooding, based on a presentation by Zubaida Umar, director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency.
