The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has announced that approximately 1 million households have benefited from the federal government’s cash transfer programme since its relaunch.
Edun disclosed this information during a World Press Conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
He noted that around 300,000 payments were made in the past week, with about 5 million individuals benefiting from the scheme to date.
“There are times when what is planned and the timetable that is planned sometimes slip, but the answer is not to now throw out the effort. The answer is not to stop. The answer is to keep going and trying.
“That was the case with the direct payment for 15 million households covering 75 million people. At first, it didn’t quite go according to plan so there was a pause and now under a much better and technologically strong configuration, payments to individuals have started going out again.
“Since it was restarted, one million households covering 5 million people, have received the benefits and in the last week alone, 300,000 payments went out,” Edun said.
In addition, the Minister mentioned the scaling up of payments through technologically aided processes under the new disbursement system.
“So under the new system, we can expect a scaling up of the payment that Mr. President committed to giving to the poorest and the most vulnerable to help them,” Edun said.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, announced earlier in February the government’s plan to relaunch the conditional cash transfer scheme to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
Edun said then that the government anticipates that an additional 12 million households could qualify for these direct payments.
The minister noted that the expansion of the direct cash transfer aims to reach a wider population struggling with the economic situation and to put more money directly in the hands of those who need it most, allowing them to prioritise their needs and alleviate poverty.
“The presidential panel on the social investment programmes have prepared to go to Mr. President with an internal recommendation to restart the direct payments to the poorest and the most vulnerable. Everything is being done to ease the pain.
“We know that there have been about three million beneficiaries now, but given the way the rates have gone, there are probably another 12 million people, households that can benefit from that payment,” Edun said.
The cash transfer programme that was first introduced under the former president, Muhammad Buhari, has been mired in all forms of corruption and malfeasance.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation responsible for the disbursement of the cash transfer is currently moribund with its former and present ministers currently under investigation by the anti-graft agency, EFCC.
The former minister, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, is currently facing a probe of about N350 billion with the sum of N50 billion now recovered from the ministry.
Betta Edu, the current minister under President Tinubu, was also suspended due to allegations of misappropriation of funds and money laundering.
Both cases are still ongoing and under the purview of the EFCC and the ICPC.
