The Tinubu administration has said it would begin cash transfers to 15 million households in Nigeria from Tuesday, October 17, 2023.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs Betta Edu, made this disclosure while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Mrs Edu said the policy would be launched after approval from President Bola Tinubu and the clean-up of the national social register.
“With the approval from the President, which we hope to get this week, on October 17, we will be officially launching the conditional cash transfer to 15 million households in Nigeria,” the Minister said.
“As we speak, we are having a verification exercise. Every state can bear us witness that we have put boots on the ground – persons who are working with the state cash transfer office as well as the governors who are the heads of the steering committee and then several other persons,” she said.
“All of this is to be sure those who are on the national social register truly are Nigerians who fall [spend] within the under $1.95 a day [range] and they deserve to have it,” Mrs Edu added.
Admitting that some persons on the social register may have died or moved up the economic ladder, the Minister said the verification exercise is to clean up the register.
