POOR HOUSEHOLDS GET FEDERAL CASH TRANSFER

The Federal Government has announced a cash transfer of N330 billion to 8.1 million households across the country under the National Social Safety Net Programme.

The Social Safety Net Programme is designed to lessen the harsh effects of economic reforms on Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens. Two major policies under the reform namely the withdrawal of subsidies on petroleum products and the devaluation of the national currency has led to widespread hardship in the country due to very high increases in the prices of goods like foodstuff and in the  cost of services like transportation.

The increases have worsened the plight of the poor in the country who constitute the majority of the population and heightened repeated calls on the government to institute measures to alleviate their precarious conditions.

Announcing the disbursement recently, Finance Minister Wale Edun said 19.7 million households, representing 70 million Nigerians were captured in the National Social Register and that 8.1 million of them have already received at least one tranche of the N25,000 stipend.

As welcome as this development is, concerns continue to be raised in media and civil society circles about the pace of the implementation of the scheme and the transparency of the entire process. From the figures given by the Minister, it means that not even half of the 130 million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty have so far benefitted from the scheme which was introduced since October 2023.

The citizenry is also kept in the dark about the identity of the 8.1 million households that have so far benefitted from as their names, location, amount paid to them have not been made public to bolster confidence in the programme.