FG has hinted it will discontinued with the conditional cash transfer program as it claimed that 2 million Nigerians have benefited from the Scheme since its introduction in 2016.
This information was provided by Dr. Ibraheem Adam, the director of the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday at the virtual International Financial Conference in Abuja.
He mentioned that the program used community-based targeting to enroll beneficiaries from rural areas in 36 federal states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He also mentioned that the program has thus far been able to reach 609 local governments, 6,272 wards, and 48,789 communities, and has reached a total of 1,940,325 beneficiaries in the National Beneficiary Register since its inception.
We came in at a good time in the history of Nigeria when the project we superintended has the mandate to reduce poverty, and as you may know, our level of poverty is around 60% of the population.
“So the programme actually came in to reduce poverty and enhance human capital development; and for us to do that, the tool we are using is the cash transfer, which is an extension of stipends to beneficiaries.
“For this to happen effectively and transparently, the federal government has introduced a digital payment system and this entails the creation of bank accounts for beneficiaries.
“We have about 2 million beneficiaries that have been credited with cash into their own personal NUBAN account created by the banks for the easy link to the ongoing international financial inclusion conference,” he said.
The FG places them in groups where they make cyclic savings and contributions, which develop into cooperative societies that they also own, giving them the opportunity to empower themselves in the process.
The beneficiaries receive mentoring on how to effectively use their newfound knowledge to their local capacity building.
The cash transfer’s main goals include enhancing household consumption, increasing the use of health and nutrition services, and enhancing environmental cleanliness and management.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that 63% of persons living in Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor.
Over half of the population of Nigeria is multidimensionally poor, with multidimensional poverty being higher in rural regions (72% of people are poor compared to 42% in urban areas), according to the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey.
