Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu has claimed that the Federal Government has successfully paid ₦25,000 each to 3.5 million Nigerians under the conditional cash transfer scheme.
She made this assertion yesterday two months after President Bola Tinubu’s administration launched the scheme targeting 15m vulnerable households as part of moves to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.
‘We have so far paid 3.5 million Nigerians N25,000 each. Of course, we are out on the field and covering another 4.5 million in the next one week so we will have altogether close to about 8 million people between now and the end of the year,’ she said on Channels Television’s Politics Today which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York last night.
According to her, the ministry verified the first trance of the beneficiary and is still in the same process as the scheme continues. She said the list is being expanded to accommodate more people like retirees.
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‘A total of 480 persons are on that list. They are presently undergoing their in-person verification because if we cannot verify who you are and where you are and that you are below the poverty line, you are not qualified to be on that social register,’ the minister said.
Away from the scheme, Edu said the government is paying arrears to N-Power beneficiaries. They were being owed some months’ salaries by the former President Muhammadu Buhari government.
‘Presently, a payment for N-Power is ongoing; we were in the office yesterday up until the early hours of this morning, just to ensure that young people get monies which they have been owed from the last government,” she said.
‘So, N-Power beneficiaries across the nation, I am sure you can attest to the fact that you are seeing your money in your accounts and this process will continue until the last person who indeed has served is being paid.
‘And of course, all of this is being restructured to ensure that we reduce unemployment and create jobs for Nigerians.’
Africa Today News, New York reports that this is a sharp contrast from what the World Bank said a fortnight ago.
The World Bank had claimed that at least 99.9% of targeted poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria are yet to receive the Federal Government’s recently announced ₦25,000 per month cash handout.