Notwithstanding that the Federal Government’s efforts to distribute cash to poor Nigerians have failed in the past, the government has rolled out fresh plans to continue the programme in 2025.
In this latest plan, the President Bola Tinubu led Federal Government will be giving N75,000 to each of about 70 million ‘poorest of the poor’ Nigerians.’
Judging by this figure, nothing less than N5.2 billion will be distributed to lucky beneficiaries across the country.
However, the condition for getting the money is by registering for the National Identity Number (NIN).
Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, made this known on Wednesday while speaking on a national television interview.
Yilwatda revealed that the ministry aims to deploy the program across all 36 states of the federation by the end of January 2025, targeting the registration of up to 18.1 million Nigerian households through the NIN system.
He said President Tinubu’s target is 15 million households, noting that an average household consists about 4 to 5 individuals.
Giving the tough estimation of the expected beneficiaries of the cash disbursement, the Minister said about 70 million households will get N75,000 per person.
According to him, the Federal Government believes that the distributing of cash would partly assist in addressing extreme poverty and create a more inclusive social safety net.
He said the initiative will also enhance the digital identities of low-income Nigerians by collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to increase NIN registrations. According to Yilwatda, this will help streamline the process and ensure the most vulnerable populations are included in the database.
While other Nigerians May partake in the data capturing, Yilwatda noted that the poorest of the poor is the main target for the cash transfer.
Calling in poor Nigerians to take the registration seriously, he explained that currently, data of the ministry only has about 1.4 million poorest of the poor citizens with NIN.
He said the ministry is collaborating with NIMC, deploying resources, and conducting training to guarantee the success of the initiative.
“NIMC has brought in more devices under a program with the World Bank to assist us in data capturing for those without NIN numbers,” he added.
“We are training in some states like Rivers, Kwara, Abuja, and Nasarawa, among others, and deploying to these states in the first round. By the end of January, we want to deploy across the 36 states to start capturing the NIN numbers of up to 18.1 million households. This will enable us to make payments to them for Conditional Cash Transfers,” he submitted.
For the minister, leveraging on technology will make the cash transfer program efficient, transparent, and accountable, unlike the anomalies such cash distribution recorded in the past.
He added that digital registration would reduce errors, improve tracking, and ensure that funds are disbursed to those most in need.
Recall that on January 12, 2024, President Tinubu suspended all programs managed by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation due to allegations of misappropriation, including those under the direct cash transfer initiative.
The President also suspended Betta Edu, former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, over allegations of funds mismanagement within NSIPA.
Edu, through distribution of cash to poor Nigerians had allegedly mismanagement funds and fraudulently lack explanations for public funds.