We’ve Disbursed N419Billion Conditional Cash Transfers To Nearly 6Million Nigerians, To Pay N54Billion To 2.2Million Beneficiaries In August – FG

President Bola Tinubu’s administration has said that its government will reach over 2.19 million Nigerians this August through its conditional cash transfer programme.

The Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Tanko Sununu, made this known while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday.

“In August, we are going to reach out to 2,190,000 people. The process is that the National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) will now harvest vulnerable Nigerians based on their lowest cadre in the national social register,” he said.

Explaining further, the minister said the initiative was targeted at vulnerable citizens who will receive direct cash payments.

“For those Nigerians, it is a rapid conditional cash transfer, so far we have disbursed N419 billion to 5.968 million Nigerians,” he said.

“Based on the National Social register, we have distributed 71% to the Northern part of the country and 29% to the Southern part.”

He disclosed that another round of disbursement would take place before the end of the month.

“Another N54 billion will be disbursed at the end of August to almost 2.119 million Nigerians and we are shifting from doing transfer anonymously, it will be done publicly, we will call the Press and give data,” Sununu added.

“We can even go as far as showing the number of beneficiaries for each state.

“Where we had problems before now was that things were not being made public, but now, as part of our accountability and transparency, we will tell each state, this is the amount we are giving to your state, and these are the beneficiaries.

“They can confirm, and anybody who wants to confirm can confirm with the World Bank.”

The minister also noted that the transfers would be made in three phases.

“There are three tranches of N25,000 each, and that will make it N75,000 in total for each beneficiary,” he said.

Over time, the conditional cash transfer scheme of the Nigerian government has been marred by controversy of poor accountability and corruption.

In December 2022, SaharaReporters reported that some top government officials introduced over 70,000 ghost workers into the N-Power Programme and fraudulently diverted billions of naira into their pockets.(SaharaReporters)